Last Alarm - Okinawa Offensive
by poynton90
Summary: Four years after the dead began to walk and the world fell apart, an island inhabited by survivors off the coast of mainland Japan are readying themselves to begin the long journey to retake what they once lost. But the journey will not be easy, but since when has a day surviving the Z.A ever been easy?
1. ARC I Prologue: Four months later

…

 _ **(Author's Notes at bottom)**_

Last Alarm:

Okinawa Offensive

Prologue

 _Tokonosu International Airport,_

 _Artificial Island off the coast of Tokonosu,_

 _Tokonosu Prefecture,_

 _Japan_

 _Four months since Z-Day…_

The weapon cleared his holstered and holding the sidearm in a two-handed grip, he fired three rounds rapid into the paper target that was stood down range from where he was standing. He fired three more rounds after his first trio of .22's punched holes through the torso target with his follow up shots punching new holes through the head. After lowering the weapon below his line of sight and holstering the AWC Amphibian S Ruger MK. II pistol once he was sure the weapon was cleared and made safe, he hobbled down towards the target as he removed his hearing protection.

Sergeant Andrew Poynton grumbled as he finally stood before the target and counted up the points from where his shots landed. Counting them up he had scored himself only 78-points out of a possible 100 but he was happy with his progress. Three weeks ago, his shots have wavered so far off course he had nearly thrown the gun down in the dirt in frustration thanks to the cast around his elbow. Now though he was landing rounds on target with the support the doctors had given him instead and now he was happy he was finally making progress.

' _Yeah. You're making progress, but what about your buddy whose lying up in that hospital bed still?_ ' his subconscious asked and he couldn't help but grit his teeth hearing himself think about that.

Jimmy, his best friend and a fellow contractor during his time with the private security company 'Laidlaw' had been one of the few contractors that got separated from the group that had fought his way through the city of Tokonosu, surviving against the odds and at the same time had been fighting to keep over a dozen survivors alive and to get them outta the city to safety.

Ofcourse though, things never could go quite so smoothly could they. During their extraction and evacuation across a bridge under protection by a small unit of the JSDF before they were due to pull out of the city and return to the island had managed to save them from a group of crazed survivors and an army of the infected that had been transforming from their sluggish 'zombie phase' and turning into creatures that could put professional Olympic runners to shame.

It had been when he was providing covering fire when he had been clipped by a .338 Lapua Magnum round from a lost sniper rifle, _his_ lost sniper rifle, that had delivered the shot that had nearly killed him and put him in a coma. Obviously, he hadn't known that the bullet had come from his rifle until the surgeons aboard the USNS Mercy had operated on him and managed to revive him several times during the operation where they removed the bullet fragments and repaired what damage they could caused by the bullet, but by that time he'd slipped into his coma.

When he was told that the bullet came from the same caliber rifle he'd lost after the rescue helicopter he'd been aboard had been taken down by another rouge element he had lost his cool. Already he had caused enough issues during the time he had seen Jimmy getting shot and nearly die on the bridge thanks to a drone feed from the ships drone that had been providing overwatch and ISR for the ground elements and had made a major freak out when he had been shouting and ranting at somebody, anybody that had been operating the drone and working communications with the ground teams to help him.

The last thing he remembered was being grappled by several officers and feeling a prick in his neck before his world had gone black before he woke up hours later and found himself strapped down to a bed in a dark room and the only light source came from outside a glass panel in the door across from him. He remembered feeling weak, sluggish and wanting to have his hands free but when he tried to call for somebody his voice had been slurred and his vision was blurry. He remembered having just enough slack so he could touch his face and he could feel how numb he was thanks to whatever it was he'd been stuck with during his little freak out.

That had been when the door finally opened and he had to cover his eye with his hands as he forgot how to blink and couldn't do anything to defend himself if he was going to be attacked. It was only when he felt the soft delicate hands of one of the survivors, Shizuka Marikawa, taking them and holding them gently that made him look at her and he sighed with relief when he saw it was her. Two other women had also entered the room, acting Sergeant Rika Minami and Captain Caroline Walshe were both stood away from the couple as they were given a few minutes to themselves to hold and comfort one another.

But like always, there was never enough time for the couple to share when Rika and Caroline had approached and sat on either side of the bed he was in and explained what had happened after he'd been given a sedative.

* * *

" _The J-S-D-F has officially been pulled out of the city as of oh-five-hundred hours this morning. We've had the drone in the air since and we can't see any sign of there being any other survivors in the city," Caroline began, "Besides, it's impossible to tell survivors apart from those things when they give off heat signatures. We've also grounded all helicopters as well. We've has search and rescue teams flying along the coastline for the last two days since your friend here and her friends were extracted from the city and brought back here and they found nothing."_

" _But we aren't sure if it's because if there aren't any people left in the city or they're all…gone," Rika added solemnly as she bowed her head while playing with the velcro strap of her right hand kevlar glove._

 _All the while they were speaking, he became suddenly aware of how close he had been holding Shizuka to him and how the woman seemed to want to try and get closer to him as she lay on the bed beside him and was curled against his side. A glance at the woman and he had to hold back from smiling when he saw he looking up at him with nervous eyes, probably wondering if she's overstepped the mark. Instead, he gently ran his fingers through her blonde hair to let her know that she was okay and he had to hold back another smile as she made a 'choo' noise that seemed so impossibly adorable._

" _So, what about the bastards that fired on you and the other survivors?" he asked Rika, "What happened to them?"_

" _After the attack at the bridge and the J-S-D-F came to our aid we broke contact, and once they began flinging hundreds of rounds down range through the fifties…I don't know," she sighed honestly, "All I heard was gunfire but I never saw them after that. I was too focused on trying to…help…" she began choking up and tears trailed down her cheeks and she had to stop herself before she made a spectacle out of herself._

 _He knew that her focus had been on Jimmy since the two had a 'moment' back at the Shintoko Third Elementary school and they had both been on the defensive when he had been on the helicopter for the extraction before things went completely tits up. The look they had shared was something he hadn't seen for a long time and he had smiled towards Jimmy before heading inside the Chinook before take-off._

" _So, what do we do now?"_

* * *

He had asked that question nearly four months ago and he had yet to receive an actual answer from anybody in command. While he was still the team commander of 'Green Troop', a small four-man Special Forces unit, they had been on continuous stand down orders until he was ready to be put back into action but while he was still hobbling about and his arm still buggered from the helicopter crash, he figured it would be a long while before they would be of use again.

Rika and Tajima had both been assisting Sakura with the day-to-day operations with the islands 'police force' and kept the islands populace in check and in order while their fourth team member, former Russian Spetsnaz operator Mikhail Obromov, had been assisting the JSDF with providing them information on Russian instillations that may still be manned on the islands just north of Japan. Even after the HANE detonation and all the electronic devices and equipment necessary to keep the power running on the island were destroyed they had managed to restore basic power, water and heating and that included the radar systems operated in the airport control tower.

One day, just a week after it had been repaired and restored to working order, they had picked up a blip on the radar. They first figured they were seeing a phantom dot and the result of faulty repairs until minutes later a Russian Mig-29 had shot across the island and forced the United States Marines to deploy their F-35B's in response until they saw how the plane continued straight towards the south and never looked back. For days he remembered how the island had been on high alert for a possible invasion by Russian forces with anti-air missile batteries set up around the island, troops being deployed with FIM-92 and Type 91 portable anti-aircraft missile launchers and the three Type 87 Self-Propelled anti-aircraft guns set up ready to fight off any invaders.

But nothing came.

And while they were still on alert for possible attacks from both surviving military remnants from foreign country's and the infected things had steadily gone back to normal. Those on the islands with valuable skills were put to work straight away. Anybody with agricultural skills and talents were put in charge of the gardens to start growing food. Those with engineering and maintenance degrees were put in charge of repairing the water pumps for the tunnels that ran beneath the island to pump out the sea water and get the drinking water running again and anybody that was a doctor or a nurse went to work in the main terminals make-shift clinic until a real medical unit was set up.

And all the while all these changes and developments were occurring around him, he felt absolutely useless. He still walked with a hobble and his arm was still suffering from the fractures he'd suffered from the crash. He'd been lucky to walk away with just a few aches and pains and not a concussion at the same time. But despite all that he wasn't able to do anything. He couldn't contribute to the cause of getting life back on track for some three thousand survivors on the island and keeping them safe fell to the remaining elements of the JSDF and the US Marines.

The only reason for the Seventh Fleet to remain behind in Japanese waters, despite numerous recalls from the United States, was all because of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Phillip Sawyer. When the outbreak began months earlier his original intentions were to gather what resources they could and then set sail back for the Californian coast and make port in San Diego. Before they could do however, they started receiving reports of multiple nuclear explosions across the United States in several of their major cities and when intel suggested that the west coast had been hit several times, he belayed the order and for nearly four months the ships remained anchored in Tokonosu bay alongside several ships of the JMSDF with nowhere to go.

While many were upset about the news of possible nuclear detonations killing millions, even with the outbreak now being responsible for more deaths than the Black Plague, the AK-47 and the Maxim machinegun all combined, people were asking why would people think it was even an idea to use nuclear weapons. Many theorised it was to try and kill as many of those things as they thought possible before whatever ground forces remained could deliver the killing blow or they were the result of a foreign power that was using the chaos to strike at the United States for a possible invasion.

For now, he would spend his days getting better, allowing himself time to heal and to adapt to this new world. Since the outbreak few people had been given the chance to sit down and just try to understand everything that had happened. Since the first 'zombie' had appeared at the airport the night the Laidlaw Antonov had landed due to engine issues, he and his fellow former contractors had been sat around and trying to help where ever they could but at the same time try and understand the world as it was now.

They had been making raids on the mainland, bringing back supplies from food warehouses and medical supplies for doctors' surgeries and even the hospital in the center of the city. When they had returned from that escapade, he remembered their faces. He could only imagine how bad it was in those places when the first outbreak victims began to flood the hospital looking for help only to pass away and come back as one of those things before the hospital staff knew too late what was going on to do anything about it.

He figured it had to have been a blood bath for them to come back looking so distraught. It was Chris Adkins, a former Delta Force operator and his former Blue team leader, who had taken him aside when they had returned from the mainland and had explained about how bad the city was now. There was no chance of finding survivors, not with the amount of 'runners' they had encountered when rushing back to the hospitals helipad to extract from the city when they had come into contact with one of them and had been shot with an unsuppressed firearm when it came after them.

Before then they had searched the building where they could for supplies and he had mistakenly wandered into the maternity ward. Chris said that he would never forget the horrible things he saw in that room and when he left, he said he was going to find Mikhail for some of his home-made vodka, drink himself into a stupor until he forgot the whole horrible ordeal.

As he stood at the target and swapped them out for new ones, he couldn't help but wonder why he felt so desperate to get back out there. Hearing about Chris' experience in the hospital, being chased by the infected and then barely making it back alive people would think that'd be enough reasoning to not want to go back out there. But the real reasoning was simple.

He wanted revenge.

Most people would think he was mad thinking that. But as a soldier his instincts were telling him to get back out there and find the bastard responsible for putting a bullet in his friend. He knew who they were and where'd they'd likely whole up to see out the foreseeable future until the creatures left the city in search of fresh victims to infect. All he had to do was bide his time, get well again and somehow slip off of the island and do the dirty before disappearing for good.

Most people would say that revenge was pointless, that it'd only get you killed because you were so focused on wanting to kill somebody that you would lose focus on the world around you. But his reasoning he felt they were justified. The bastard responsible for shooting his friend didn't just shoot him; they got survivors killed, they were responsible for the infected horde attacking the Takagi mansion and then took people he began to have feelings for, taken them away from him after the helicopter crash and then threatened their lives when they were confronted by the rescue team that had gone to save them.

' _Or, is the real reason because they were lost while they were in your care and you feel a need to prove yourself again?_ '

He sighed heavily and as he had gone to move back to the marked line to continue his target practice, he decided that he'd had enough for today. Shooting .22's was fun and to train himself and rebuild his muscles and regain muscle memory, but that stupid little voice in the back of his mind had just called him out and it was right.

He had let people down. He had gotten people killed and hadn't reacted quick enough when the girls had been kidnapped and having his rifle taken at the same time had been all too insulting.

But he was going to rectify those mistakes when the time was right. And the solution lay in a steel box that was sitting beneath his bed in the room that he shared with the other members of his team.

He wasn't sure when. But one day he was going to do what needed to be done.

* * *

Rika Minami stood in the main terminal building, arms cross over her chest, as she looked out towards runway of the airfield outside the window. She wore her Multi-Terrain Pattern fatigues, minus all of the other implements of war that she was normal adorned in when wearing them, as she watched her friend practising off in the distance with a handgun on the range area separated from the rest of the airfield so nobody caught a stray bullet.

Andrew had been out there for hours now, practising as he had called it before he had left with the pistol in the box he had been carrying along with several targets for practise and a brick of .22-caliber ammunition. But what he called training, Rika would call brooding. He had looked calm and collected, but there had been a brief moment she had seen the smile fall from his face when they had been speaking before the scowl that he normally wore returned when he had hobbled away.

His injuries were still causing him a lot of pain to deal with and it was also frustrating for him to deal with. She knew from experience when she had broken her leg after coming off her motorcycle years earlier and had wrecked her pride and joy in the process. But what the operator was feeling didn't seem just to be because of his arm and leg injuries, it was something more. Something troubling.

She knew before that if she thought he would be a risk to the other survivors on the island then she would have reported it straight away to those in charge of the day-to-day military operations taking place on the island and in the city. But she knew her friend. Right now, he was likely going a little stir-crazy, not being able to leave the island for nearly four months in a facility that wasn't really meant to be lived in would begin taking its toll on any person's mind. She had felt the same way to begin with when the city was officially deemed unsafe to enter and for a whole month, they left the city to itself and allowed the infected within to run wild.

Now she was worried for her friend and wanted to help.

"Penny for your thoughts," came a familiar soothing voice from behind her and she sighed as she felt a pair of hands loops around her waist from behind as Shizuka leaned on her shoulder. Her eyes followed her friends' and they landed on the single figure that stood off in the distance before she gently tightened her hold on Rika.

"Have you talked to him yet?" the former school nurse asked gently as she tried to make her friend feel at ease. If the two were in private they would have been somewhere dressed much more comfortably and holding each other closer than what was appropriate in public.

"Not yet," Rika sighed as he looked from her friend and back towards the runway, "He hasn't been making it very easy."

Shizuka looked away from Rika towards the man on the field as he began hobbling away from the firing range and towards the nearby hanger that had been refitted for special forces to operate from and live out of. While Andrew-San lived in one of the few bedrooms under the airport in the sound-proofed accommodations that resided beneath the terminal building he would often stay in the hanger some nights to assist with repairing their gear and other equipment.

"Maybe it's time to go on the…what do you call it?" Shizuka had to ask herself for a brief moment before she remembered, "The offensive. Go on the offensive with him. Try and get him to talk to you instead of waiting for him to come to you."

Rika smiled as she rolled her head back so she was closer to her friend, "I really wish things were that simple Shizzy," she sighed, "Like most men, he's strong headed and doesn't budge on things so easily."

"Then, maybe we talk to him together."

* * *

"What's upsetting you?" Mikhail asked as he stood over the open engine block of a Humvee that had been left behind by the Americans and was currently in the middle of gutting the machine while trying to find the 'gremlin' that was making the vehicle break down. The former Spetsnaz operator was a whizz when it came to most vehicles, Russian mainly, but he was always willing to get elbow deep inside a vehicle that he hadn't driven before.

Andrew replaced the unloaded Ruger pistol and the remaining ammunition inside the locker he used along with the targets he had used before closing it and made his way over towards the Humvee and lean against it as Mikhail continued to work.

"I've been thinking," he said as he watched Mikhail work, "Thinking about everything that's happened over the last couple of months and…things," he said and wasn't surprised to see the Russian stop fiddling with the engine to look up at him.

"Things? Well that's vague," he chuckled "Care to elaborate?"

If there was one thing that Andrew knew he wasn't good with was talking. When it came to fighting, he was in his element. But talking to somebody about what he was feeling, especially with a fellow soldier was just something that blokes didn't do.

"Ever get that feeling where…," he paused for a brief moment before saying, "Where you just feel…useless."

"I hope you aren't talking about me, comrade," Mikhail chuckled.

"No, not you. I meant…I mean me."

Now that did give the Russian a reason to pause, "Why would you think that?"

"Because you guys have been going out there every week, getting in amongst the action and doing your jobs while I've been sat around here, doing sod all I might add, feeling like a fifth wheel."

Mikhail pulled himself away from the Humvee and wiped his hands on a rag before he walked over towards where his locker was, opened it up and retrieved a half-full bottle of vodka from within and walked back over and set it down in front of him, "Drink," he ordered. Andrew snorted but never disobeyed an order to take a drink when it was offered. Especially by a Russian.

"Now, tell me," Mikhail began as he dragged a stool over and sat across from the British soldier after he took a swig from the bottle and handed it over, "Why do you feel this way?"

* * *

"Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" Shizuka asked her friend as Rika pulled the truck to a stop outside of the hanger where they had spotted Andrew enter earlier on when they were still in the terminal. The blonde bombshell wiggled her way out of her seat before she managed to get to her feet as Rika came around and stood beside her and helped her straighten her clothes out.

"I'm a member of Green Troop so yeah, we can. If anybody asks about why you're here, you're here to replace Andrew-San's bandages," Rika explained as she pocketed the keys to the truck and the pair walked towards the hanger.

"What bandages?" Shizuka asks as they near the entrance.

"The ones you're going to take him someplace private for and wrap around his chest," she wiggled her eyebrows at the other woman and sniggered when she watched her friend blush a deep red. Rika wasn't stupid. She known for a while now that she and Andrew-San had been together and during their time in the school before the evacuation they had gotten 'really close' as well.

"Rika-San," Shizuka giggled as she clasped her hands together.

Following after Rika, the pair were about to walk into the hanger when they heard a pair of familiar voices talking.

"Why do you feel this way?" she heard Mikhail-San asking somebody and for a moment held a hand up to stop Shizuka and hold a finger to her lips to keep her from talking. She dared take a risk and peeked around the corner quickly and saw that the Russian was sitting down beside a Humvee that was in the middle of undergoing maintenance with Andrew-San sitting across from him, nursing a bottle of vodka.

Andrew-San seemed hesitant to speak for a moment before taking another swig from the bottle and passed it over, "Well, for a start, I'm frustrated."

"Okay, what about?" Mikhail pressed.

"I'm stuck here, all day and every bloody day to follow while you guys risk your arses doing supply runs and a few times brought survivors back as well. Me on the other hand, am sat here and seem to be doing nothing more than sitting on my backside and being a burden and being useless."

Rika's eyes softened as she listened to her friend speak and she heard a sniffle from below her and peek down to see Shizuka was crouched beneath her and watching the conversation as well.

"Comrade," the Russian leaned forward and placed a hand on Andrew-San's shoulder, "I would punch you if you weren't wounded as you are right now. Don't you ever dare think or say that you are useless," he growled and Rika was surprised at the force that he spoke with.

"When things started going to hell, you were always there fighting to keep the people safe and I fought right alongside you. I knew from the moment we touched down in Tokonosu you were a man with a mission. You had a friend to look for and I knew that you would move heaven, hell and the earth in between to find them. And I must say, we both racked up quite the body count to find them," he added with a chuckle and Rika saw a hint of a smirk adorn her friends face.

"And don't think of these wounds as a hinderance," he said and slapped his hand down on Andrew's thigh which caused him to yelp at the sudden jolt of pain rippling through his leg, "They're proof that you fought against your enemies and came up the victor."

"Could have said that without belting my leg, wanker," Andrew-San groused and Rika had to stop herself from snorting.

"Look, the point is, is that you don't have to prove anything to anybody. While you may not be included as one of the 'Tokonosu Ten' you were instrumental with helping to save all of these people. You even helped rescue that little girl Megumi if I remember correctly when the airport was being overrun by those freaks."

Rika looked down at Shizuka as she looked up at her and both were smiling. They both knew who the little girl was and they saw her around the airport most days with her mother and father and they would always speak with them to see how they were doing. They would often hear from them about how thankful they were to the brave officers and the 'soldier' who came to them in their time of need when they had been separated from their daughter when the infected broke into the terminal and had anted to thank him face to face but they had never seen him since that day.

"These wounds, they're proof that you did your job and carried on keeping survivors safe after the crash," Mikhail then smiled as he leaned back on the stool and smiled, "I heard you even got a little trigger happy with my RPK after I had been knocked out."

"My H-K ran out of rounds and I couldn't use my grenades or the machine gun that was still mounted on the ramp was buggered. So, yeah, I used up all your tungsten ammunition," Andrew chuckled.

"Those were top-quality armour-piercing rounds," Mikhail replied in a deadpan voice even though Rika saw him smiling.

"Hmm, did a good job penetrating their heads too," he said before blowing a raspberry to simulate a headshot.

Rika then stepped away from the corner and Shizuka stood and brushed off her knees as she stood and looked at her friend, "I think we should talk with him now. He seems a little more open and relaxed now than usual," Shizuka smiled.

"Take him in the back someplace quiet and talk with him," Rika said as she put a hand on her friends' shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"But, what about you? Didn't you need to talk with him too?"

"I think I've heard what I needed to hear," she said but then said, "Or rather, what I needed to hear somebody tell him."

Shizuka smiled, happy that her childhood friend heard everything she needed. As she looked back towards the hanger entrance and feeling nervousness run through her again, she absentmindedly ran a hand over her flat stomach and prayed that everything would go smoothly.

* * *

"So no more of this self-doubting, okay?" Mikhail asked his friend as he handed him back the bottle that now only held a third of the original contents, "If you need to talk to somebody, come and see me. Or that lady friend of yours, the blonde," he suggested and saw how Andrew's face suddenly altered from smiling to looking contented. That was a look that the Russian hadn't seen on a soldier's face in a very long time other than when they were drunk.

"Thanks for the talk man, I think I needed to hear that," Andrew said offering him the remainder of the bottle back to him after taking another swig.

"You keep it comrade. I think you'll be needing it," Mikhail murmured and looking up to the Russian he saw how he was looking towards the hanger doors and the to figures that were walking inside. Quickly putting the bottle to his lips and he drank another gulp and coughed as he set the bottle down, "Oh brownies," and Mikhail chuckled as his friends' sudden nervous antics.

"Rika, it's good to see you today," Mikhail said giving his friend a moment to collect himself.

"And you too, Mikhail-San," Rika gave the man a nod before focusing on Andrew, "Andrew-San, Shizuka is here to replace you support bandages," she said and looked back to where they all looked to see the blonde beauty stood back a few feet behind Rika and nervously clutching her medical bag. Rika was wearing her everyday MTP's and kevlar boots with her SIG-Sauer on her hip but looking to Shizuka he noticed she was wearing a large black hoodie and jeans and a pair of Ugg boots. Sure, it was starting to get a little chilly given the time of year but not enough to wear hoodies yet.

"Umm, could you please follow me, Andrew-San?" she asked quietly as she gripped her bag tightly in both hands and he saw how her skin was turning bright red as his had done not many minutes before.

* * *

"Very well then, gentlemen, ladies, I believe that we have concluded the meeting for today. Unless there is anything would wish to add right now, I thank you for your time," Souichiro Takagi thanked the men and women of the military and civilian parliament that made up the new 'Tokonosu Regional Government'. From around the large table once used by the airport employees for meetings those that had been sat around the oval shaped table stood and bid the minister farewell for the day as they all began filing out of the office and into the terminal and go their separate ways. Some would stay behind to talk to their counterparts about the meeting but none of them ever stuck around for long. Like everybody else on the island, while their job was to keep tabs on the everyday going's on, they also had their own tasks and assignments to be carried out before they had a chance to relax.

Of everybody from the meeting several remained behind, they were both Souichiro and his wife, Yuriko, along with her brother, General Isoroku Ihara, who was the regional commander of all JSDF assets that were still active in the southern Japanese regions, of which there were many.

Across from them also sat Colonel Aidan Dempsey of the British Special Air Service along with Captain Caroline Walshe, an officer of the British Army seconded to the SAS as an intelligence officer and formally a liaison between the military and the British government. The only reason for their continued presence in Japan was they had yet to receive any word from back home about transport back to England. Details about the outbreak in the country were scarce and vague at best but details about the death of the Royal Family had been confirmed by sources of the search and rescue teams that had scoured the countryside looking for the downed helicopter. Their country was currently in the middle of two battles; the first being retaking the country from the undead menace that walked the streets of their cities and the second against each other in a civil war between groups who thought they knew best for keeping the country safe against further threats.

The final person sat at the table was Cmdr. Tom Chandler of the United States Navy, the Captain of the USS Bonhomme Richard and currently the second in command for all American forces in Japan. The only reason for his presence at the meeting had been because the fleet commander had been called away on urgent business when there had been possible sighting of infected in the water near the fleet anchored out in the bay and had returned to command his forces on dealing with the threat.

"Politics, they are quite tiresome," the Don commented as he rubbed his forehead in a vain attempt to relive some of the stress he was feeling and felt a comforting hand on his arm and smiled as he looked to his wife who smiled back at him. His wife of twenty years had always been there for him through thick and thin, through all the hardships that his family faced she stuck by his side. Even the apocalypse couldn't separate or drive them apart.

Not even their little pink-haired terror.

"The reason why I never took a job working for the British parliament Mister Takagi," the Colonel commented as he gathered his papers together tidally and leaned back in his chair, "After being a military man for most of my life, sitting down in a room with a few hundred simple-minded people arguing over some pathetic bill they wanted that would fatten their own bank accounts to be passed instead of working to better the country never appealed to me."

"I never liked politicians in general," Caroline added, "Every time we needed authorization for a mission aboard or to sort out a hostage situation we always had to wait on some higher-up toffee-nosed wanker who thought their dinner appointment was so much more important," she said but then realised who she had just said that in front of and added, "But not you ofcourse, sir," she said sheepishly.

"None taken my dear," Souichiro chuckled. He knew where she was coming from. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence several months ago when he was dealing with party members of the Nationalist group of the government and he would spend hours waiting for the other members of his own party for rally meets because they had been otherwise 'engaged' with other activities.

Chandler chuckled at the small talk between them as he gathered his own papers whilst preparing to leave. Outside in the corridor on the other side of the glass wall that separated them from the office space were many people were currently working on the few working computers were monitoring communications and searching for any radio signals coming from outside the Tokonosu regions. His escort team were waiting for him and he could see SCPO Wolf Taylor, a former Royal Australian Navy operator, waiting for him but noticed how the man was about to start pacing and the other Navy escorts looked a little uncomfortable in the larger males' presence.

"General Isoroku," he addressed the man beside him, "I'll have those figures worked out for you by the end of the week and ready for when the Vice Admiral returns from the fleet. Hopefully it's not as bad we currently think."

One of the key points of their meetings were about their supplies. While the fleet's entire cache of MRE's and food stores were all taken into account and everything they had brought back from the mainland raids including the fruits and vegetables they had begun to grow in small batches included, it gave them cause for concern with winter approaching in a few months.

"If you need to contact me my line is always open to you. If the figures are as we suspect then we can begin plans for a raid on a naval storage facility up the coast," Ihara replied, "Something's telling me it's going to be a harsh few months when the end of the year comes around."

"We'll need to discuss about sheltering the people properly in the next meeting as well," Yuriko spoke from across the table, causing both men to look at her. "As nice as it is for my husband, myself and our daughter and her partner to live in a lovely apartment beneath the airport there isn't enough room for all of them. Many right now are sleeping in the halls of the terminal building with the clothes they were rescued in and blankets and sleeping bags. We need to house them properly."

Souichiro looked to everyone around the table and nodded and quickly, each of them began opening their folders and shuffling though their papers once again and began writing down details for this to be the main topic of the next meeting beside the food supply issue as well.

"I'll make sure that the Vice Admiral receives these notes for the next meeting," Chandler said as he stood from his chair and started towards the door to leave the office before he paused and looked to the others once again, "Is there any news of Green Troop's status and readiness?"

"Currently, three of the four operators that make up the troop are operationally ready. However, Doctor Marikawa has stressed to me that Sergeant Poynton won't be able to return to duty for at least another three months. While his injuries will be healed within the next couple of weeks he'll need to work on regaining muscle growth and possibly another surgery if the bone in his leg hasn't set correctly," Caroline didn't like the fact that one of their best troopers was out of the fight, even though she wouldn't tell it to their face directly, but considering how Andrew was the Regiment's 'Wild Card' and being a former member of the Increment he would be vital in the coming months. She had heard the stories about him during the first day after the infection, how he'd beaten on of those creatures' heads' in with his bare fists and then chewing through them with assault weapons fire when they breached the terminal.

And then in the city, well…he did somehow manage to level half of main street in the business district with a tank.

"And, C******s-San, what about him?" Yuriko asked, never being one to forget the man who saved her daughter's life several times over, she would never be able to repay the dept the Takagi family owed him.

"Still no change at this time. The doctors have discovered something however, a possible blood clot in one of his lungs but they are keeping a close eye on him and monitoring his health on an hourly basis."

"A blood clot? How the hell…?"

"Either general health is to blame or because of him being shot," Caroline said and sighed before saying, "However, even if the man woke up today, he would have to undergo another operation to have the clot removed. And right now, he's lucky that Saint Michael isn't calling for him."

"Andrew would say he's one lucky bastard all right. Guess those yanks really are as tough as they are portrayed on television," Dempsey sighed.

"Well Colonel, you do have to remember, most Americans try to be like John Wayne after all, but those damned Texans truly believe that they are," Ihara smiled.

After a few moments of awkward silence and a few smirks, the commander stood and sighed as he bid his farewells and left the meeting room with his security team in tow. In the minutes that followed Blue Troop operators arrived and escorted the Colonel and Captain Walshe before a small contingent of JSDF arrived to escort the General.

Souichiro leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily as Yuriko allowed herself to lean against her husband and snuggle closely to her husband and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek, "We should be heading off soon. Saya-Chan is staying with Hirano-San tonight with Komuro-Kun and Rei-Chan, so we'll have some time to relax and be by ourselves tonight."

The man smiled lovingly at Yuriko, no words needed to be said as he took a moment before he silently stood up from his chair, gathered his papers together before looking down at her and held out his hand to her, "Then, let us make haste and enjoy ourselves tonight, for I fear we might not have this chance much again in the future my dear."

* * *

"Now, I want you to lift your arms up as high as you can make them go before it starts to hurt," Shizuka said as she watched Andrew slowly raise his arms above his head before he started to wince and grit his teeth. She noticed this and quickly stepped in to stop him from exerting himself, "I said before it started hurting. Not let it start and keep going, Andrew-San," she muttered and he had to slowly lowered them again before he felt the pain ease away before he released a laboured sigh as she gently massaged the injured arm and shoulder.

"Sorry," he murmured as she started massaging his arm very gently before moving up towards his shoulder. Her soft and delicate hands felt like smooth silk as she gently helped relieve the pain and looked close at his arm whilst doing so.

"Well, your arm is definitely in the final stages of healing now. Should only be a couple more weeks before the pain in your muscles and nerves should heal too. However, as your doctor I'm going to recommend light-duty for the next month or so."

That was disheartening for him to hear. Light duty fair enough, he was expecting that anyway. But the worst was yet to come…

"However, I think it could be at least another two, maybe three months before the leg is fully healed. I'm going to have to recommend that you won't be operationally ready for about six months," she said calmly as she moved from his side to stand in front of him as he continued to lean against the desk before he sighed heavily.

Talk about a good kick in the bollocks.

"I can't go six months love," he said as he looked up at her, "Six months being stuck here on this island doing nothing will kill me."

Shizuka tilted his head up to look at her in the eyes and staring back down at him she grumbled, "So, you're telling me that you don't want to be here with me. You are that eager to just pack up and get back out there and get yourself hurt again?" she pressed, "Want about me? What if you go out there and get hurt again?" and now placed her hands on his cheeks and turned his head towards her so she had his undivided attention.

"Being a soldier, there's always a risk of getting hurt or being killed. Obviously don't want to get hurt or killed, that's just a risk we take unfortunately. Rika's was an officer in the S-A-T for several years before I even met you and you knew before all this went down just how much her job was full of risks. Mine was just the same, risks and luck of the draw."

"Luck of the draw?" she asked.

"Yeah, your ticket. Think of it like a lottery, there's risks and chances involved all the time. Only in this lottery if your number gets called up it'll get punched."

"Then if that's the case," she paused to collect herself, "I don't want you being a part in this lottery."

He now gently put his hands on her hips and pulled her towards him so their bodies were flush against one another, "Well, looks as though I'm not going to be for a while anyway. If you're going to submit your report," he said with a little smirk, "But you have to understand Shizuka. I'm a soldier and it's my duty to make sure that you and everybody else on this island are protected. Even if it's at the cost of my own life," but saying this made her eyes water, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to, okay. I'm not going to go out there into the world looking for a fight. Fighting against those things right now, it's a lost cause. Rika's taking teams out all the time and they are going out hauling back supplies and the occasional survivor but going out there to fight them, it can't be done."

"So, does that mean…?" she left the question hanging as he looked deep into her eyes with just his one, feeling a mixture of emotions as he leaned forward, putting his lips to hers and held her for several long minutes as they kissed. As he pulled away and looked at her again, their emotions were clear to each other as tears streamed from their eyes.

"I'm not going to leave you sweetheart. I'm not leaving you or the little one," and instantly he noticed how she went rigid. Sensing this he looked at her now with concern as they still held each other, "What's wrong sweetie?"

"L-little one?" she asked nervously.

"Alice. I was talking about Alice," he said calmly, hoping that she wouldn't freak out at the thought of them looking after the little girl permanently. He had taken a shine to the little girl a lot of the last few months since meeting her on the streets of Tokonosu with the group of local high school students, foreign exchange police cadets and a former police officer who was also once a leader of a women's street gang and ofcourse this beautiful school nurse after saving them from a large group of the infected with Rika, Tajima and Mikhail backing him up.

The fight back to the school had been tough. Having to deal with a city full of the infected to deal with that were turning into runners and keeping a bunch of kids in check at the same time when having such a large group and limited trained and armed professionals to keep them corralled together at the same time.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked when he noticed that she seemed shaken by his comment about adopting Alice for themselves to be her legal guardians but there was something else. She was distracted in the moment and when he mentioned about not leaving her and the little one, he…

Oh…

No…, no way, that wasn't possible…was it?

"I-im fine, Andrew-San, please! There's no need for you to-" she stammered lightly before he stopped her and then looked her in the eye.

"Shizuka," he began as he saw the look of fear appear in her eyes, "Are you…?" he was so scared himself that in the moment he couldn't even ask her. But the look of hesitation and fear that he got from her made him realise that right now that she was probably a hell of a lot more worried than he was in the moment and knew he had to suck it up.

Taking a deep calming breath, he stood upright as best he could on his feet as best he could and held her close in an embrace so she was flush against him. With one hand on the small of her back and the other moving between them he gently laid a hand over the top of her belly beneath the hoodie and her shirt and gently stroked the skin with his thumb.

"Are you pregnant?" he asked calmly.

The moment stretched out for several long minutes as Shizuka began to shake against him before sobs began to escape her and for as long as she needed, he held her close, gently rocking her back and forth and the pain in his leg was pushed aside as they remained that way for several more minutes until she finally answered not with words.

But with a slow and steady nod before more sobs followed and she was now clutching to him as though life depended on it.

"Pl-please don't ha-hate m-me," she sobbed against him as he felt his own tears streaming down his cheeks.

Why? Why on earth would he hate her?

"Shizuka, look at me," he asked her as she kept crying into his chest. He didn't force her, but he held on to her for as long as possible before he had to bring her up so she would look at him.

* * *

For the longest time after she was stood upright Shizuka continued to look at the floor as more tears streamed down her cheeks, she knew there was no escaping this. With that single nod she had likely confirmed his worst fears. Who the hell would want a baby with her?

This man before her was a soldier and she knew that when he was going to be well and healthy again, he was going to want to run right back out there into the fight. But that was what worried and hurt her the most, knowing that he would leave her here alone even though he had said about staying with her and taking in Alice.

She knew that after a few more minutes that she should just look at him now and face the music before she would have to go to the doctors aboard the American navy hospital ship and get the treatment for-

Suddenly, her head was gently titled upright so she was looking at him and she froze.

What she had been dreading the most were the looks she had seen on his face before. Anger, disdain, hatred; all of these before and never had she seen him really smile at all during the last few months they'd been together and now she wasn't seeing any of those.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks and she couldn't tell what emotion was ruling over him in the moment. Happiness however seemed to be the ruler as he couldn't stop smiling at her.

Relief, just seeing this flooded her with relief as all of her previous negative thoughts was drained away as she was flushed against him once more and smashed her lips to his as their hands were wrapped around each other in a loving embrace.

* * *

Sitting on the floor of the officer, hand in hand, as Andrew lay with his head in Shizuka's lap as he lay facing towards her as he gently placed his other hand against her belly again and this time, he was whispering to the small baby that was growing inside of her.

"Hey little one, I'm your daddy," he would whisper or "Please be kind to your mother while she carries you."

Shizuka smiled as she heard this and she brought they clasped hands up to her lips and kissed the back of his hand, which made him look up at her and smile happily.

"Are you okay?" he would ask her, again and again, even though she had already told him that while she was still nervous about being an expecting mother that she wasn't as worried and terrified as she had been before. She had had to sit down and talk with many young girls during her time as a nurse at the high school where she had worked for several years about pregnancies after they had come to her for tests and examinations after they had confessed about having 'some fun' with their boyfriends over the weekend and would have to refer them to off-site doctors and nurses.

But now, finding out that she had a little one inside of her after knowing herself for the last week since taking the test and finally being able to share the news with the man she loved and the father of the baby she was going to be carrying she couldn't have been happier.

"I'm fine, Andrew-San, really," she smiled had to let go of his hand for a moment to wipe away another stray tear.

"You, me and ofcourse our little blip are gonna be fine," he said as they held hands while looking into each other's eyes. However, Shizuka suddenly started giggling and he gave her a smug smile until she finally stopped when she remembered to breath.

"Blip? Really? We're going to call our child blip?" she giggled.

"Well," he began with a small shrug, "Until you're far enough along so we can get a scan we don't know if they'll be a girl or a boy."

She smiled as she looked down at her stomach again and rubbed her palm over it before looking back to him, "What do you think they'll be when they are born?" she asked wondering if he had a preference.

But like any man, he knew better than to say a specific sex he wanted the child to be. Besides, he was much more sensible than that anyway.

"As long as both you and the baby are well, healthy and happy enough then I don't mind at all."

Shizuka gave him a smug smile of her own that said 'good answer' before she looked away for a few moments before looking at him again and asked, "What about names?"

"Names? Already?!" he laughed, "I've only just found out that I'm…going to be a father again," he said slowly. To just hear so suddenly from his own mouth that he was going to be a father again a wave of emotions smashed into him. Tears were brimming in his eye again and as tears fell, he could feel a sting of pain coming from his left eye socket beneath the eyepatch and had to grit his teeth while looking away from Shizuka.

"Andrew-San, are you…" she stopped when she saw him shaking and it took only a brief second to know he was crying. The last hour had been an emotional train wreck for them both and she knew that this would be the start of a new life, one that she would pray and hope that he would be able to enjoy. She realised that for her love, this was his second chance, a second chance where he would have somebody to love and provide him with not only love but hopefully her soul as well.

"I…umm…," he began as he took a deep breath in hopes to calm himself as he thought about what she asked and then looked back to her, "I think, if we have a boy, I think the name Daniel would be good."

"And…if it's a girl?" she asked.

He thought about it long and hard. He knew that he couldn't have two English names on the table, not for both a boy and a girl. That would be selfish. This child both of their doing and he needed to show a bit of consideration.

"How about…how about-"

* * *

"Akane-Chan!" a shout came from the far side of the hanger's vehicle depot. The little girl who was walking alongside her mother saw the person who called her name and instantly a brilliant smile flashed across her face before her mother laughed as she let go of her hand and allowed the strikingly beautiful little girl run towards her father.

Running through the hanger, Akane dodged between the other men and women that were working on various pieces of equipment and weaponry and at one point had to jump to the side to avoid one man before looking back over her shoulder and called "Sorry Oji-San!" she called to Sergeant Mikhail Obromov as the Russian called something back to her in his native language before turning to address her mother and older sister as he removed his large pack off his shoulder.

"She has her father's spirit," he chuckled.

"That she has, Mikhail-San," Shizuka Marikawa chuckled as she looked down to her other daughter, Alice, as she noticed she was still watching her younger sister race through the hanger towards a group of men and women all wearing black military fatigues. When she saw Alice smiling, she looked up and saw just in time as one man that stood out from the rest removed the respirator, ballistic helmet, communications headset and balaclava all at once and put his pack and submachine gun down on the ground quickly before opening his arms to the little girl that ran into his arms before wrapping them around her.

"Daddy!" she screeched as he stood and twirled around with her in his arms on the spot several times before he finally put her down and smiled down at her.

"Well hello sweetie! How've you been?" Staff Sergeant Andrew Poynton chuckled as he knelt down in front of her only for the little girl to wrap her arms around her father's neck again.

"I've missed you!"

"I've missed you too baby girl," he whispered to her and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. As he held his little girl, he peered up and watched as his wife and daughter came towards them from the entrance of the hanger with Mikhail walking up close behind them.

It had been four years now, four long brutal years of fighting to survive the new world order as the survivors that lived and worked together on the Tokonosu Naval Base strived to make it just a little better. Despite everything; the zombie apocalypse, several nuclear weapon detonations across the globe and surviving through disease and starvation, they triumphed over all.

"Hey," he greeted his wife as he stood and allowed her to come close enough to give him a welcoming kiss after being away from the island for what seemed to be far too long.

"Hey yourself. Miss me?" she purred quietly so the kids couldn't hear.

"Ofcourse, all of you," he smiled and kissed her again.

"Look at that kids. Your folks are doing kissy faces," a familiar voice came from beside them and they broke the kiss and looked over to see Jimmy smiling at them both, seeming rather proud of himself as the children sniggered.

The Texan had been added to Green Troop's roster two years previously when the team needed to bulk up its numbers and having an experienced medic on the team sure helped. On occasion he would assist the Navy Seals with their operations in the field and had been a valuable asset when helping to retake Diego Garcia, a small island in the Pacific that was once used by the United States Navy as a resupply station but had been nothing more than a massive graveyard teeming with the undead.

They had even fought side-by-side in Hawaii as well with remnants of the Hawaii National Guard they fought to secure the island and the few hundred survivors that had been living on the island in a few of the hotels they had managed to secure safe. That was before they all had to be evacuated when a horde of several thousand of the undead had threatened to overrun the hotels when a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey had gone down in the city streets of Honolulu, resulting in the Tokonosu Navy coming to their aid and a rescue team consisting of Green Troop, Seal Team's Two and Three and remnants of the National Guard to extract the pilots from a sea of the undead.

He snorted as he playfully punched the Texan in the shoulder whilst smiling, "Idiot," he chuckled as he turned back to his wife and children and picked up his daughters in both arms before they headed for home.

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

Well then folks, been a while eh? Yeah i know, a _third_ rewrite of the original story but i feel as though this was needed so that the story would be a decent follow-up to the events of the original 'Last Alarm' written by FiremanJim even though the story is still in production. I managed to get this chapter finished just in time to celebrated the release of the Resident Evil 2 remake that many of us fans of the original series for the last couple of years since those words "We Do It!" were announced. I've spent the last six hours playing the game already and just managed to beat Claire's A-Scenario without dying once!

Anyway folks, i hope that this chapter didn't confuse you too much towards the end with the time-skip but we're now officially in the 'future' now and i hope to have the next chapter finished and out within the next week.

Also, if there are any readers here from my Zootopia stories i wanted to give y'all a heads up that i will be continuing with the 'Days Gone Bye' story but the 'Vietpaw Connection' story will be deleted. The reasoning being that because of that story i have (Like before during its original upload) been receiving a large amount of hate messages from people within the community that didn't like the story because apparently it was promoting war and hate towards people, or in the case of the story species of animals, and been called out as a racist...

Basically folks, that's the type of shit i don't need in my life. I write for fun and given time i'll get over none of my stories have EVER promoted such things. Here's my words of wisdom to you though people; don't like the story then you can go read something else...simple enough, isn't it?

Anyway, 'til next time y'all take care and stay safe and peace out!

 _ **Additional:**_ Happy now Jimmy!? LOL


	2. ARC I Chapter I: Four years later

…

 ** _(Author's Notes at bottom)_**

 ** _*Possible trigger warnings through chapter*_**

Last Alarm:

Okinawa Offensive

Chapter 1

 _JS Shimokita,_

 _Ōsumi-Class Landing Ship Tank_

 _Currently sailing towards last known coordinates of merchant supply ship broadcasting S.O.S…_

 _04:23 (4:23 AM)_

Looking up from the deck of the _Ōsumi_ -Class ship towards the night sky he smiled as the stars twinkled. It was hard to find the time most days to just take a few minutes to stop, look up and just think about what life must have looked like from all the way out in the depths of space. As a child, Staff Sergeant Andrew Poynton had always wondered if there were others out there. Not necessarily aliens but possibly other humans on another world the same to their own. He wondered what they would be thinking if they saw their world that the survivors of the apocalypse had brought about were trying to survive.

The reasonably part of him knew that if there were others out there, they couldn't have given a toss about their situation. And he wouldn't have blamed them. This world as it was, many days he had wondered if it was worth saving what was left of mankind after all of the sick, twisted and sordid shit he had seen over the last four years. Four years earlier when he had briefly returned to the United Kingdom with Red and Blue Troop aboard a surviving Royal Navy carrier, he had come into contact with a Major Henry West who had been put in charge of the new Civil Defence Forces (Home Guard) for the area around Southampton and a stretch of the southern coastline.

When he had been able to get a chance had sat down with the Major and he was filled in on the situation about the country and its current state. Most of the larger cities save for London, Birmingham, Derby and Liverpool were all death-traps. The outbreak had managed to spread across the water from France on one of many small boats filled with refuges leaving Calais and Dunkirk hoping to seek refuge in England. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force had made it their mission to stop any and all transports leaving France from entering their waters. Once it had been a few ships stopping refugees going over on boats that had fled from North Africa or the Middle East in hopes of searching for a new life.

It had turned into a fight for their lives when multiple attack aircraft had flown along the coast and destroying anything that looked remotely like a raft that could carry even a few people. One group had been so desperate they had tried to fly across in a small Cessna aircraft but a surface-to-air missile launched from the White Cliff's of Dover had quickly put an end to their plan.

But that hadn't even been the worst part.

During many of his excursions into the 'Dark Zones' as he called them came across some of the most grizzly and disturbing sights he had ever seen. There were large stakes set up in a small village in every garden they found and on each stake were the bodies of the dead and dying that had been living in the village and just trying to survive. From one survivor that had tried to save said that a large group of raiders had been through days before, taken anything of value, took the women and killed or strung up the men and children. When they had tracked down the group, they were horrified to find they had already killed half of their captives and were either raping or torturing the rest when they had come across them.

The Major hadn't left out any of the details. How they had charged into the settlement the raiders were holed up in. How he had thrust the bayonet attached to his old L85A1 through the eye of one man forcing himself upon a girl who couldn't have been any older than twelve years old, cut another one's head off with his Kukri and when they had found the leader, a pathetic weaselly little man who had begged for mercy before trying to offer one of the girls up for them in an attempt to try and escape, well, it hadn't ended well for him.

West had the surviving raiders cuffed up and set down on their knees while his team had rendered medical aid to the survivors before loading them into trucks but had the raiders leader, some weaselly pathetic male in his late 40's in the mud face down in front of his men. He had then ordered his troop to execute the surviving 28 raiders and the civilian volunteers hadn't even hesitated unloading nearly 300 rounds into their bodies from their SA80's before the few of those with pistols walked up to the bodies and put bullets through their heads…, well, in to the ones that hadn't been turned to mush by the high-velocity 5.56mm rounds from their rifles.

For the leader who had been forced to watch his people, along with his two sons, being turned into confetti, West had dragged them weeping man towards one of the raging fires that was still burning away at the bones of their previous victims and held his face just inches from the roaring flames and taunted him, berated him and cursed him with every insult he could think of before he had gotten bored, put two rounds through the back of his knees and threw him into the fire and had stood back and watched and listened as the pathetic male wailed for mercy and tried to escape the inferno.

Stories like that had stuck with Andrew for a long time and he would never forget them. He didn't want to forget them either. Because he knew that he believed that the Major's actions were justified in a lawless land where the dead ruled over the living and small bands of survivors thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to act on their basic instincts and desires to do as they pleased and took what they wanted without thinking of the consequences.

Hell, he had killed more than his fair share of hostile survivors when in the field since Green Troop had been put back onto active status three years ago and he hadn't regretted a single one of them.

* * *

"Nice, quiet night tonight, is it not?" Rika's voice came from behind him and he watched as she approached from their transport helicopter where the rest of the team were preparing their equipment for night-time flying. They were on immediate standby for deployment from the JS _Shimokita_ the moment they came into contact with the merchant vessel that had sent out the emergency distress call just a few hours ago. They weren't aware of the situation of the call, whether it was the undead or possibly even pirates since they had been known to work in the waters near Vietnam and Cambodia even before the outbreak.

"Aye," he said, "Nice night. Would love to be back home enjoying this though."

"Once this call's been dealt with, we're heading home. The captains already said that we've been away longer than he would have liked and hauling all of this supply is just painting a target on us if there are other vessel out there that know we're carrying this."

In this new world, it didn't matter if a ship hauling a life-time supply of food, medical supplies and munitions was civilian or military since the thought of getting their hands on so much supplies after so long scraping by and living off scraps meant that anybody desperate enough would attack them.

"The captain called down a minute ago, we're about eight miles from the supply ship and we'll be given clearance to launch within the next several minutes." Rika looked over to him as he continued to look towards the night sky with a smile gracing his lips and smiled herself. This Andrew hadn't existed for a long time just a few years ago when he had come back into her life and he was the one responsible for not only saving her life and that of nearly several thousand others that lived and worked together back at the Tokonosu Naval Base just off the coast of the city.

"If we must," he sighed and looked around to face her. One of the biggest changes that Rika noticed about Andrew-San since he had been living in Japan was he was the proud father of two daughters, one of them his own flesh and blood and the other being adopted didn't chance the way he felt about Alice. Being married to Shizuka as well had altered many of his behavioural issues; he'd quit smoking, stopped drinking and his mood swings also stopped thanks to his wife being the 'mistress' in their relationship helped relieve a lot of tension for them both.

But when they made eye contact now, she wasn't looking at one eye and an eyepatch anymore but a set of eyes, one green and one blue. The blue eye was false and he had it implanted nearly two years ago after he had another operation to remove some small shards of shrapnel from a bad grenade throw that had not only killed the undead he had aimed for, but also his own face. He'd been damned lucky he had been wearing his gas mask and ballistic helmet at the time otherwise he would had come out of it a lot worse off.

Walking over towards their UH-60JA helicopter he found the three other operators working to make sure their gear was ready for flight and for combat. The pilots were already checking their instruments and all electrical systems seemed to be in the green. The fuel tanks had been topped off just minutes before and as soon as the words come down the line, they would be ready for immediate launch.

Sergeant Tajima Hirakawa was loading up on magazines for his preferred weapon of choice when they dealt with ship raids such as this. He slotted several loaded magazines into his pouches along with a number of grenades ranging from fragmentation and stun grenades. He handled a '9-Banger' flashbang and smiled before slotting it away and replacing the velcro flap to keep it secured.

Sergeant Mikhail Obromov was in the middle of checking the door-mounted minigun and making sure the feed try was correctly attached and the rounds were loaded correctly so hopefully there wouldn't be any jamming issues.

Finally, there was Staff Sergeant Jimmy C******s. The team's medic was checking that his medical supplies were topped off and that he wasn't missing anything. Andrew couldn't help but notice the tactical hatchet that was attached to his belt and smirked knowing that not only did the former firefighter and mercenary carry it because it had saved his life on more than one occasion but because it also remined him of his time as a firefighter back in San Antonio.

"Are we all set then folks?" he asked as he climbed into the Blackhawk helicopter towards where his gear sat waiting for him and began the process of donning his balaclava.

He received a round of heads nodding and a grunt from the Russian and snorted knowing that was all he was going to get from them. As he made sure the balaclava was fitted, he pulled on his headset and made sure he had clear comms with the rest of the team before finally donning the gasmask and ballistic helmet that his team were well known for. In combat operations around the globe before the outbreak there hadn't been many special forces teams that adorned the full 'black kit' that the Special Air Service had been well known for. But this attire wasn't to look intimidating or frightening to the enemy, every piece of this gear had a purpose and going to a ship that had been out of communication for a couple of hours, there could have been any number of reasons and with the off chance that the crew had been subjected to a dangerous gas leak or substance then he wanted to make sure the rest of his team were protected.

* * *

The order was sent down four minutes later. The captain had given the troop official orders to launch after comms with the ship were briefly reconnected but were lost again moments later. What the captain said gave the team cause for concern that they had heard the sounds of groaning and moaning coming back over the radio. Not wanting to take the chance that somehow the crew of the ship had become infected and leaving a ship full of supplies to drift off aimlessly and become lost in the ocean, they needed to take the ship back.

The Blackhawk was in the air in less than four minutes after the call came once the pilots had the propellers spun up and once they gave each other the go signal they were clear of the deck and started heading in a North-Westerly direction towards where the ship was last known to be from their radio transmissions being triangulated by the onboard tech team.

Tajima and Mikhail looked over their Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns and checking the magazines were topped off and that the safeties were engaged but would be ready for the moment they boarded the supply vessel. Jim and Rika on the other hand had other roles to play out however. Normally they would have the full team on the deck and getting ready to clear the ship from bow to stern. But considering the circumstances in case the ship had been attacked they would need continuous air support until they had secured the ship and then they would land and join them.

Jim was working on the helicopters mounted machine gun, a .50-caliber Browning M3M flexible heavy machine gun, otherwise known as the GAU-21/A and it was one of the fastest firing .50 cal's that the team had ever used on their operations. The machine gun had been plundered from a CH-53 and mounted in the Blackhawk to replace it's original M2 after the Marine Corps helicopter had suffered a major malfunction and offered them a great advantage in the field when dealing with large hordes of the infected.

Rika was handling another of the troop's .50-caliber weapons. Since her speciality was sniping, she was but in charge of handling their big-boy cannon, a Barrett Model 99 anti-material sniper rifle. It had been adopted when the troop was officially put into full-time active service four years earlier and had been a sensible model to adopt since Rika had been very trigger happy with their older M82A3. At least with this weapon she couldn't keep snatching on the trigger and waste a full magazine before she realised what had happened.

Checking his own weaponry, he removed the SIG-Sauer P226 9mm handgun and gave the weapon the once over before ejecting the weighted magazine and checking the rounds were seated correctly before replacing it and before performing a brass check and holstering once checking the weapon was decocked.

"We're coming up on the ships last known position. E-T-A; two minutes!" a pilot called back over their comms. Giving them a quick thumbs up to let them know they'd been heard he looked to Tajima and Mikhail, who were both now donning all of their equipment and the three operators looked almost identical to each other if not for their name tags on their vests.

Retrieving his own MP5 and bringing the sling up over his shoulder and letting the weapon hang from under his right arm he made sure a magazine was locked firmly into the weapon but the safety was engaged and no round in the chamber. They wouldn't make their weapons 'hot' until just before they would rope down onto the deck. As he finished going over all his gear again, he felt the helicopter bank slightly before the pilot called back to them.

"We have visual contact with the ship!"

With a quick glance out the window, he found himself looking at the ship that sat idly in the water below being illuminated from the spotlight attached to the underbelly of the Blackhawk. She didn't appear to be moving and her lights were out except for emergency lighting coming from the tower and radio transmitter. The light was shone over the hull around the waterline and their appeared to be no signs of damage and the deck itself was clear of any persons, either the crew or anybody for that matter. The light was brought back up over the tower and they could all see into the bridge but seeing no movement he wasn't sure what to think.

"There doesn't appear to be any sign of damage to the ship's exterior and it looks as though the ship was powered down intentionally. Emergency power's still operational so there shouldn't be any reason for anybody not to respond to our hails on the radio."

"Jimmy, man the fifty-cal! Rika, you're on the Barret! Load up with the 'hot' rounds and remain in the air until we call for you!" he gave two of the team their orders, "Guys, keep circling the ship and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary! That could be either something in the water or potentially another boat!" he called up to the pilots.

* * *

The lines fell from the Blackhawk and dangling just inches off the metal surface as moments late, three black-clad operators landed on the deck with their MP5's drawn and they continued to sweep their sectors until each of them were satisfied that they were clear to proceed. Unhooking themselves from the lines they quickly advanced forward towards the stairs leading up to the main gantry that ran around the main tower of the ship. As they continued on towards the bulkhead they continued to sweep for moment.

The Blackhawk was already back in the air after detaching the lines and began circling the ship. Even with the blinding spotlight being shone towards the area covering the bridge they continued with extreme caution. Not knowing what was around the next corner could mean certain death.

Moving up towards the bridge as they climbed the gantry steps, they got ready to position themselves ready to breech and clear and secure it before trying to establish communications and try and find the AWOL crewmembers. Stacking up at the bulkhead, Tajima being behind him and Mikhail standing opposite him, the Russian tried the handle first and felt it slack as he pushed down. Pulling back, he looked to Andrew and gave him the sign that he was ready to breech when he gave the order.

"Taj, flash it!"

Tajima opened a pouch and retrieved one of the several '9-banger' grenades he was carrying and kept pressure on the spoon as he removed the pin and got ready to throw the disruption device at an arc so it would land somewhere in the center of the bridge.

Tajima looked as Andrew as he positioned himself to kick the door open the moment Mikhail pushed down on the handle. A quick nod, the handle was pushed, he slammed his foot into the door and it swung inwards and he quickly moved back to give Tajima room to toss his grenade into the room. The three operators dove out of the way as the initial detonation erupted before several more blinding flashes erupted from the grenade and several loud muffled bangs echoed inside the small chamber.

They didn't give it a moment for the smoke to clear before they rushed into the room. Mikhail took the left as Andrew went straight ahead taking the most direct route while Tajima hung back to observe from the rear. The whole thing was over in less than five seconds. Clearing behind desks, filing cabinets, computer terminals and any other paths leading in and out of the bridge they turned back and moved towards the main terminal that was still functional but the controls were locked down and a quick glance Andrew saw that they would require a key to open the mechanism that had the ships controls locked down and either a code or a master override key card to get the other systems back online.

"Dammit!" Tajima cursed as he set his MP5 down on the terminal and started typing commands into the computer but so far, he was getting 'blocked' responses and that they would require codes from the captain to get the ship moving again, "I can't get this open. We need a code to get the systems unlocked but even then, we won't be able to pilot the ship."

Andrew looked at the device keeping the control locked and it reminded him of a gear-shift locking device he had on several of his old cars when he had been a Royal Marine. It was a simple enough device to stop thieves from stealing his car even if the glass had been smashed or the doors had been opened. Surely it couldn't have been so hard to remove with a bit of manual labour?

Inspecting the device up close however made him discover it was made of forged steel and locked with a key. Even if he somehow removed the bolts, he wouldn't be able to get the ship moving.

"Right, first things first. We need to locate the crew or any signs as to their whereabouts. Do we know if this ship is equipped with a 'citadel'?"

The citadel was a room that the crew of a ship used as a panic room. If the crew were in danger of being boarder by a hostile group with intent to kidnap or kill them then a general order would be given for everybody to head there as quickly as possible. They would be stored with supplies enough to last a crew of 40+ for several days along with a radio and weapons and ammunition to keep any potential threats at bay.

But then if they possibly had access to a radio then why weren't they responding?

"First things first. Locate the citadel and establish comms with the bird and fill them in on the situation. We find the captain and get him to unlock these controls and head back home. Sweet?" he asked.

"Sweet," Tajima said and Mikhail nodded as well.

* * *

It had been ten minutes since Rika had seen Andrew lead Tajima and Mikhail inside the ship's bridge. She had managed to see them briefly when they had flown close as the lights from their MP5's disappeared before they messaged that the ship's controls were in lock down and that the captain was the only one with the codes and the key to access the ships piloting controls, navigational and other essential systems.

They last informed them that they were intended to head below deck to find the engine room and possible an entrance to the ships 'citadel' before inspecting the cargo the crew were bringing back from their last pick up point before heading back to Tokonosu.

The pilots informed them that they could easily remain in the area for another ninety minutes before they would need to return to refuel but could easily stretch that if the need arose.

As she kept an eye on the open waters around the ship she happened to glance over at her husband and noticed that he wasn't performing his duties of keeping an eye on the ship or the open sea but instead he was looking at her. As their eyes connected, she saw _how_ he was looking at her and she couldn't help but redden around her cheeks at the attention he was giving her.

"Jimu-San, concentrate on the job!" she chastised him before removing her headset and said, "You can do that when we are in private," and smiled as she quickly replaced them.

The man chuckled at his wife and did as she said. Being in a relationship with Rika was one of the best things that he felt had happened to him in a long time. After the outbreak and being stuck in the city of Tokonosu for over two weeks his life had altered so quickly and being able to take the time to adjust to everything had been stolen from him after he had been shot. The complications that had followed had led to him falling into a coma for several months before he eventually awoke to a new world that had been changing and evolving around him ever since.

When he had awoken in the hospital bed aboard the USNS Mercy all those months later, the first person he remembered waking up to was seeing Rika as she had been leaning on his bed and gently snoozing. What had really taken him by surprise though was how their hands had been entwined. Days later when he was beginning to come around and begin to feel more alert all of the memories came back to him in bits and pieces. He began to remember; the attack by the infected on the island, the flight into the city and crashing in the park, meeting up with the kids and their school nurse in their high school before escaping into the city, saving Alice from the creatures after losing her father to another survivor before being held within the Takagi compound for several days as his wounds healed and their escape back into the city.

Little by little it would come back and it was when they had been at the Shintoko Third Elementary school that he ran into one of his tormenters…, teachers he should have said but he always liked to poke fun at Andy whenever he got the chance. They had been forced to fight against a group of bandits and he had watched as his friend fought off two men at once with just his knife, slashing one across the eyes before plunging the tip of his dagger deep into the guts of the other man before twisting it around violently before yanking it free, grabbed the other man by the throat and plunged the knife deep through the other mans eye.

He had seen some pretty disturbing things in his time, but seeing how his friend had been able to kill two men so violently and seemingly without remorse for his actions made his weary of the man for days to follow.

But the days after he'd come out of his coma, he would see the man in a whole new light. He learned a few days after he came around and was more responsive to the questions he was asked by doctors and nurses aboard the Mercy that Andy was going to be a father. He'd been absolutely flabbergasted by the news and hadn't stopped congratulating the pair when they had been visiting him one evening aboard the ship when Shizuka had been getting her first scans of the baby and Andrew had been having some x-rays done as well.

During his time being stuck aboard the ship during his recovery he was also visited by Saeko who had arrived with the Takagi family in tow and he was surprised to see that she hadn't been alone. Oyuki, the baby girl that he had rescued from the city after he'd become separated from group was being held in her arms and she was no longer the small gurgling little bundle he had found either. She was several months older and she looked so much different as well. As with all babies she had put on some weight and when he held her in his arms it was such a surreal feeling.

As he looked briefly at Rika again and remembering the feeling of holding Oyuki, it only hardened his resolve on what he wanted.

He wanted to have children.

* * *

"We've just received word from the Shimokita! They've picked up several inbound contacts coming from the north!"

Jim turned towards the pilot as they radioed back to them but quickly brought his attention back to the M3M and racked the large bolt on the side to chamber the machine gun.

"Is that it? Are they coming from the sea or from the nearest land?" Rika radioed back.

"No additional data, Minami-San! Small and fast was all we got from them! They'll be on our location in a few minutes!"

"Never mind a few minutes guys," Jim cut into their conversation as he brought the machine gun around, "They're already in visual range!"

Looking out the door herself towards where her husband was looking, she watched as the moonlight reflecting off the water illuminated several small objects in the water and small lights aboard each of the vessels as they powered towards the supply vessel.

"I'm guessing they aren't here to lend us a hand," she muttered as she reached forward and set up the strand on bungee line from end side of the door before picking up the Barrett rifle and placed the barrel on the cord so it acted as a balance for her as she aimed through the attached digital scope towards one of the closest vessels.

"Dear husband of mine, would you please fire a strafe across their bow's please?" she asked almost too kindly and a glance to her husband she saw the devilish smirk he wore as he brought the weapon around to bear and pressed down on the butterfly trigger. He unleashed a brief hailstorm of .50-caliber rounds into the water, several of them were white-hot tracer rounds, and the second the rounds hit the surface the boats closest to the strafe rapidly turned to avoid being hit but the others were remaining on course for the ship.

"Looks like these guys can't take the fucking hint!" Jim shouted, "What now?"

She removed a single .50-caliber round from the pouch on her side and inserted it into the chamber before locking the bolt firmly closed, "Here!" she shouted as she tossed over the digital range finders and he caught them with both hands, "I need you to range the closest target for me!"

"Pilot! Level off and hold position!"

As Jim moved from behind the machine gun and set himself up beside her with the range finders, he sighted the closest boat and noticed there were several armed individuals on board with a variety of weapons; assault rifles, belt-fed machine guns and a couple of RPGs' as well.

"Pilot! Hold position!" Rika called and within seconds felt the helicopter steady and hovered just a few hundred yards away from the ship, putting themselves between the smaller boats and their guys who were still on the ship.

"Give me data!" she called to Jim.

"Target is moving, no wind data!"

"Doesn't matter! Distance!" she shouted.

"Three-Twenty! Three-Hundred! Two-Eight! Two-Sixty-"

The moment he shouted that the target was 260 yards away Rika fired the Barrett and let fly the explosive tipped round as it sailed through the air and hit the pilot's cabin of the lead boat. She watched with satisfaction as the round made contact with her intended target and the explosive tipped round hit the boats pilot in the chest and the anti-material round shredded skin, muscle and most of his internal organs and sprayed them behind him inside the cabin.

Ejecting the used round, she quickly inserted a second and fired again and hit the controls, forfeiting the other crewmembers from piloting the small boat as it continued speeding towards the ship.

"Get back on the gun!" she ordered, but Jim was already moving back behind the big gun and set his sights on the boat and opened fire. The stream of lead broke large chunks off the boat and he must have hit the engine as smoke began billowing up from somewhere below deck and the crew members that he hadn't turned into jelly jumped overboard.

He swept across to a second boat and continued firing before the crews of the other boats began firing back at them. Small arms fire whizzed all around them with a couple of smaller caliber rounds hitting the helicopter and prompted the pilots to move position.

"Persistent bastards!" Rika growled as she noticed how a few were still heading towards the ship but a few had turned tail and were heading off back in the direction they had come from.

"Where's the Shimokita?! We need her here now!" Jim shouted towards the pilots.

"They're three minutes out! We've got gunships incoming for added support!"

* * *

Tajima surged ahead of the others as he slapped a fresh magazine into his MP5 and slapped the bolt down hard. Behind him Mikhail was bolting it towards him as quickly as he could while Andrew kept back and maintained covering fire until his weapon ran dry.

"SET!" Tajima roared so Andrew could hear him.

"BOUNDING!" the team leader shouted and quickly turned and bolted towards his position as Mikhail reloaded and waited until Andrew was past them before they opened fire simultaneously. The rounds from his MP5 hit their intended targets…their targets being the undead crew members they had found trapped below deck both in the engine room and sleeping quarters as well as the main storage compartments where all of the supplies were still wrapped up on pallets and in containers.

When they had gone below deck after checking out the bridge and discovering they needed to find the ships captain for the access code and key card to get the ships systems online again and the key needed to unlock the controls they began searching the crew cabins first and the first one they found had been a blood bath inside. Whatever had happened must have happened quickly. The scene would be repeated in the next few cabins they searched before finding a body, of which there wasn't much left of.

But what was more unsettling was that it hadn't been a member of the crew.

The body was laying on face down with a blood covered bullpup assault rifle still gripped tightly in their hand and dozens of empty 5.8x42mm DBP10 shell casings all over the floor. The body had been torn apart and large chunks of flesh, muscle and one of the arms and a leg were also missing. The face was barely recognizable and most of the skull was exposed as well leaving very little for them to make an I.D on the corpse.

So far there weren't any survivors, just the undead they had discovered when entering the bowls of the ship and they had been running ever since.

"MOVE IT TAJ!" Andrew roared as he opened fire, muzzle at head height and unleashed a continuous stream of 9mm rounds into the creatures pursuing them and took down several, creating a small barricade that temporarily slowed them down but as always, a small obstacle wouldn't stop them from wanting to achieve their goal of hunting down warm human flesh.

"Fuck it!" he hissed, "Guess these supplies aren't getting back home." He reached into a pouch on his vest and produced an M67 Fragmentation grenade. Yanking out the pin he tossed it underarm into between the legs of the creatures before he turned and bolted after the others whilst screaming "GRENADE!"

In the movies, a grenade's detonation was something akin to a small missile strike and the explosion was always enormous and in real life was something nowhere near as close. But when you use a grenade in a confined area with limited paths for the explosion to erupt and there being pipes overhead, funnelling only god knew what, he threw himself down onto the ground after flying through another bulkhead just behind Mikhail just as the grenade detonated.

Surprising really how much can happen in just a few seconds eh?

"Okay, that one's on me," Andrew said holding up his hand as Tajima stepped in front of him and covered the bulkhead and the corridor they had made a mad dash through. The corridor was alight and he could see the corpses that had been pursuing them were no longer standing but smouldering mounds of pulp.

"We can't go back this way. We'll need an alternate route for exfil."

" _Lisus Khristos_ …" Mikhail muttered from behind them and they both turned to see what had the Russian operative so spooked. Turning around they found the operator aiming his MP5 towards the shadows but the moment the light from Tajima submachine gun joined his they quickly illuminated the corpses that littered the ground and several of them being stacked atop of each other.

"What in gods name?" Tajima muttered as he looked over the bodies and saw how they were all in different stages of early decomposition but different amounts of damage. Some of them had been bitten and fed upon but others were riddled with bullets and some suffered what looked like chemical burns.

"What the hell?" Andrew muttered as he approached, SIG in hand as he moved towards the bodies and nudged at one with his boot. Whatever, or whoever, had done this to the bodies looked as though somebody had been trying to dispose of evidence. Looking at the bodies up close he could see that whatever had been poured over them was acid and it was already eating through the clothes and skin.

"What sick-twisted bastard would do thi-"

"Help…."

The voice was weak but he heard it clearly enough when it came from his immediate left. Looking around he couldn't see anything at first as he brought his sidearm around and flipped the switched on the weaponlight and the bright light illuminated a single female figure leaning against the wall; heavily bleeding, burnt hair and the molten skin on her face made it look like she was one of the undead. But the look of agony on her face and the arm that was reaching out towards him, that he noticed had no hand, and the tears running from her eyes begged for help.

"Please…"

* * *

The JS Shimokita had arrived on the scene just minutes after the pirates had arrived. From the deck multiple JGSDF troopers had taken up firing positions with their belt-fed machine guns and hadn't stopped firing into the water until the few small vessels that remained on the water had stopped their engines and the men onboard held up their hands in surrender. A few had tried their luck with ramming the larger vessel but they were immediately taken out by the JMSDF escort ship, the JS Sendai, a Destroyer Escort ship.

The Blackhawk remained in the air circling the supply vessel that the rest of Green Troop were aboard and no were in the middle of kitting up as smoke could now be seen billowing up from several vents on the side of the ship. Their troop were in trouble and even if their team leader had ordered them to stay aboard the heli, they couldn't just leave them if they were in trouble.

Jim had his medical pack on his back and Rika was loading up a belt of 5.56mm rounds into her MK.46 when she happened to peer down towards the deck and saw a door being blown open, smoke blooming and whipping up into the air before three figures emerged and were running away from the open bulkhead before more figures began to emerge and she felt her heart drop when she saw how they were shambling after them.

"INFECTED ABOARD THE SHIP! TAKE US DOWN NOW!" Jim roared at the pilots, both deciding to immediately comply with the order as the man slapped a 20-round drum magazine into his Military Police Systems AA-12 automatic shotgun in full view of them and didn't want to risk being on the Texan's bad side.

It took the pilots seconds the bring the helicopter down towards the deck and set the wheels down just as the team were reaching them. The two masked operators looked back to see the third lagging behind and the moment Rika and Jim looked they noticed why. Andrew was grunting heavily as he carried somebody in his arms towards the helicopter. His mask was gone and he was coughing heavily as he approached and the moment his eyes laid on Jim the Texan could see the worry in his eyes.

"GET THE MEDICAL KIT OUT NOW! HELP HER! PLEASE!" he shouted over the helicopters propellers. Gunfire erupted behind them and Mikhail was unloading the magazine from his submachine gun into the approaching undead that were spilling out onto the deck. The weapon ran dry and as he went for another from his vest, they saw him pull out his sidearm and let the MP5 hang by his side after running out of magazines. He brought up the semiautomatic pistol, a P226, and fired the 9mm pistol towards the nearest creature and Andrew was surprised he managed to control the bucking pistol single-handedly to score a direct hit. Might not had been a kill shot striking the chest but a good shot nonetheless.

" _ **Vy ublyudki YA otrezhu tvoi dolbannyye golovy i otkhlebnu tebe gorlo!**_ " he ranted and raged as he repeatedly fired the large weapon until the slide was locked to the rear. Beside the Russian Jim stood firmly with the shotgun and unleashed a continuous volley of 12-gauge fury into the approaching creatures.

"MIKHAIL! MOVE IT YOU WANKER!" Andrew ordered. The team thought that the Russian would ignore the order as Jim's shotgun ran dry and he turned and climbed back inside the helicopter, but Mikhail quickly fell in line and moved and climbed aboard the Blackhawk as Rika helped move their mystery survivor into the helicopter as Jim already set to work washing her body with all the water he and Rika had before he could begin tending to her wounds.

"What the hell happened to her?!" The former mercenary had seen some really nasty shit in all his born years but whatever had happened to this pour woman was something straight out of a horror movie. She looked as though she'd been bathing in some corrosive.

"It's acid. There were dozens of bodies below deck, all covered in fucking acid," they heard Tajima growl as he ripped off his mask. The pair looked shock, horrified and appalled by what they heard and it sounded as though these pirates were going to answer for what they had done.

"Get us in the air!"

* * *

The moment they had touched down on the deck of the Shimokita several medics were already approaching the helicopter with a stretcher and when the door opened some of them paused for a brief moment when they saw the wounded and heavily disfigured woman laying on the floor of the Blackhawk helicopter. They quickly helped move her from the helicopter onto the stretcher with Jim following them close behind as he listed off everything that he had done during the short flight from the supply ship and disappeared inside the ship with Rika following close behind.

The others remained aboard the Blackhawk for several minutes, even though the pilots had begun the process of powering down the helicopter and departing as they took the time to catch their breath and collect themselves after the ordeal that had transpired hour.

"Jesus…, the hell would do something that fucking evil? Huh?!" Tajima panted as his hands shook from an adrenaline rush as Mikhail moved to sit beside the Japanese trooper and put an arm around his shoulders to try and help calm him, "I mean, fuckin' acid!"

"There were some sick, twisted evil bastards in the world before it changed buddy. And now, no matter how much has changed, people will always be evil and carry on doing evil shit like that," Andrew said a moment later as he took a shuddering breath as he looked towards the water where several RHIB's were in the water and the JSDF were in the process of taking the pirates prisoner.

"What will become of them?" Mikhail asked as he continued to hold Tajima.

Andrew snorted and spat onto the deck as he looked back to the Russian with a familiar look in his eye, "I don't know."

The response wasn't what Mikhail had expected from the team leader. Knowing just what he was capable of he figured that he would have the pirates executed for what they had done, and likely would anyway, but hearing 'I don't know' made him wonder what the man was thinking.

* * *

Two full days would pass before a report was handed down to the special forces group after they had submitted their own reports about the events that had taken place the night they had been dispatched to board the missing supply ship and find out what had happened to the crew and its cargo. After the captains of the JS Shimokita and JS Sendai sat down with Green Troop, they explained what they had discovered themselves. A surviving pirate they had taken prisoner had been reluctant to talk to them at first when he was amongst the others but after being taken away from the group, he sang like a canary.

The man said that they had been patrolling the waters around their usual stretch of water just off the coast of Cambodia when they had seen the ship off in the distance. The pirate's captain at first had been said to have been tempted to go after the ship but had decided against it when they had seen another smaller and faster vessel approaching the ship.

This caught their attention as they had seen another boat when they had boarded the ship but allowed the captains to continue.

An hour afterwards the pirate explained how they had been contacted over the radio by somebody using their dialect claiming that the ship was found to be drifting with no survivors aboard and that it was heavily ladened with supplies to last a long time and that they should come straight away. Obviously, being a greedy bunch of pirates, they had jumped at the opportunity and the captain had called for all of their boats to converge on the ship and it hadn't been long afterwards they had been attacked by the helicopter.

When asked if they had ever seen the ship before or boarded the ship on an earlier date, they said that the pirates had seen the ship on several occasions but it had always been under the escort of a battle cruiser and wouldn't dare go near them.

When asked about what weapons they had been armed with a list had been presented to them. It was the standard loadout for pirates operating in south-east Asia. Chinese Norinco AK's, American Colt M16's, Soviet-era RPG's and several different types of belt-fed machine guns from around the globe. The captain of the Sendai asked why they wanted this information and it had been then that Rika had brought the black bag into view and removed the rifle that was inside and had laid it on the table for all to see.

"The Norinco Q-B-Z Ninety-Five assault rifle. This particular model shoots a five-point-eight millimeter round and is used exclusively by the Chinese P-L-A, People's Liberation Army."

When the captain said about how the pirates could have been lying about their story and that the rifle could have easily been picked up over time and that China exported hundreds of thousands of rifles aboard every year to several nations across the globe Andrew had admitted that this was true, the 97-series that was chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition and not the rifle they had found of the 95-series. China never exported rifles using exclusive calibers they only produced themselves and that the likelihood of a pirate having one of these rifles and enough ammunition to continuously use it made him think that the pirates weren't lying.

This made everybody around the table sit in silence as they thought about the possibility of the supply ship being targeted and sabotaged by an unknown group and how the crew had become infected as well.

* * *

"How's she doing?" Mikhail asked the doctor tending to the survivor they had brought back. Since she had been brought about the JS Sendai she had been placed into a medically induced coma. The Russian had seen enough people in his life that were the victims of chemical warfare in both the middle east and Eastern Europe to know what pain the poor woman would suffer is she woke up now.

"She's sleeping and her vitals are stable. We're keeping her on a steady stream of painkillers and fluids so she can rest comfortably."

Looking back down at the heavily bandaged woman, Mikhail couldn't help but wonder how people could still do something so sickingly twisted to another person. But he knew he wasn't one to talk. During his time with Spetsnaz he had taken part with unleashing bio-chemical weapons all across the globe; the United States, United Kingdom and even in his own country so the people would back the government with invading an innocent country accused of producing and distributing the same weapons to their enemy's.

"Has she been able to say anything about what happened?"

"Not much I'm afraid. All she kept saying was 'they wore black' and nothing much else," the doctor sat down at his desk as he looking over his notes, "We were able to get her name though and it was one amongst the supply ship's manifest."

"What is it?"

"Boupha," the doctor replied.

Looking at the girl briefly once more he gave his thanks to the doctor before leaving and headed back towards the bunkroom where Green Troop were situated.

"One day, I'll make sure she becomes a beautiful flower once again."

* * *

It would be another three days before they finally arrived back in Japanese waters and another day before they reached Tokonosu. Arriving back in familiar waters and surrounded by a familiar coastline of Tokonosu city as the JS Sendai and JS Shimokita anchored just off the coast of their final destination, the old Tokonosu International Airport and now Navy base for the remaining vessels of the JMSDF and what remained of the United States Seventh Fleet.

The supplies that were stored aboard the Shimokita would be taken ashore after being loaded up into boats while most of the JSDF troops would get ashore by helicopter. Green Troop were taken ashore by their Blackhawk and they would fly directly over the island before touching down on the large raised helipad that was situation behind the hanger designated for Special Forces personnel; Hanger 18.

The second the Blackhawk set down on the troop were greeted by a face they hadn't expected; General Isoroku Ihara. Rika and Tajima being traditional, bowed to the General while Andrew, Mikhail and Jim remained upright until the former SAT officers stood upright.

"General," Andrew greeted the man professionally.

"Staff Sergeant," Ihara replied with a slight nod.

"Any news on the survivor?"

"As per your request Poynton-San, Boupha has been taken aboard the Mercy and will be treated with the best care the medical professionals aboard can provide. However, the rest of the council are concerned about bringing an outsider into our midst," he expressed his concern.

"The council," Andrew spat, "Have nothing to worry about. The woman we recovered is gravely wounded and was knocking on deaths door when we found her. If any of them have any concerns about how a woman with one arm and one leg and failing internal organs can be considered a threat to the safety and security of the people of this island," he growled, "Then they can come and speak to me directly. Otherwise, tell them to keep their noses out of special forces business until it's wanted."

Surprised by the soldiers attitude the general knew better right now than to get on Andrew-San's bad side. He had seen the reports that had been sent from the captain of the Shimokita and knew just how bad the situation had been.

Without even waiting for the general to utter a response, Andrew marched off towards the entrance of the hanger where several other special forces personnel were stood watching. Many of them were from the JSDF Special Forces Group with several others being from the American Navy Seals and German KSK.

Nodding to the operators they made their way through into the hanger and all breathed a sigh of relief as they were welcomed back by several other operators and technicians working on maintaining their equipment and vehicles. As Jim removed his pack and took his wife's off of her and placed them on a prep table along with their weapons, the Texan looked around and his eyes landed on a familiar group of girls and women that were approaching from the main entrance.

"Hey, Andy," he caught his friends' attention and pointed towards the group and saw how he turned and the scowl he wore vanished and was instantly replaced with a smile.

"Akane-Chan!" he called to the little girl with brown hair that raced towards the man as he diched his helmet and MP5 on the ground as the little girl dipped and dodged between the operators walking around and past Mikhail as he stood next to Shizuka and Alice who was holding Zeke in her arms as the little dog barked.

"Daddy!" the little girl shouted happily as Jim watched Andrew pick her up under the arms and twirl around with her several times as she giggled happily, "I've missed you!" she said when he stopped spinning and she hugged her father fiercely.

"I've missed you too baby girl," he whispered and held her tightly in a loving embrace before gently letting her go after Shizuka and Alice approached as she let the dog down and the little Jack Russel ran to Andrew's feet and tried to jump up him before he chuckled and bent down to give the pup some fuss before standing back upright before turning his attention to his wife.

"Hey," Andrew said quietly as they both leaned in close to each other and ignored everybody around them as they kissed each other tenderly. The kiss ofcourse caught a few people's attention but with some of them having loved ones and knowing the pain of not seeing them for a long-time during deployments they knew that moments like this were precious and shouldn't be looked upon with prying eyes.

"Hey yourself. Miss me?" Shizuka purred as she pulled away and smiled at her husband.

"Ofcourse, all of you."

Seeing an opportunity to play with his friend, he approached the girls and crouched down beside them and pointed towards them, "Look at that kids. Your folks are doing kissy faces," he chuckled and the girls giggled between themselves as the pup ran around the adult's feet and barking.

"Idiot," Andrew grumbled towards the man before he reached forward and picked up the girls in both his arms, causing them both to squeal loudly.

"Just for that lad, you get to clean up the kit," he smirked. To Jim it was worth it and shrugged as the Texan and his wife watched him leave towards the main entrance of the hanger while talking to his girls and wife all at the same time whilst being bombarded with questions.

Just as Rika laid her Barrett on the table and he set down his shotgun he still heard the girls speaking animatedly with their mother and father until they started getting louder. This caused both of them to turn and wonder what was causing them both to cause such a ruckus when they saw the source.

Saeko Busujima stood beside Shizuka and the two were talking to each other as the girls were now on the ground out of their father's arms and jumping around excitedly and playing with a third girl who was smiling and laughing as Andrew stood off to the side holding Zeke and rubbing the dog's ears. Oyuki Busujima, a beautiful sweet little girl happily played with the girls before she stopped and looked to the man who held the pup in his arms and like her adoptive mother, bowed to him before the soldier put the dog on the ground and returned the bow.

He could see them talking to each other but it would be cut short when Zeke started trying to climb up the little four year old and she would crouch down to pat Zeke gently on the head before she would stand back up and say her goodbyes as Saeko had made eye contact with them and no wanting to stop her any longer, Andrew and his wife and children left the hanger as Saeko and Oyuki walked through the hanger before coming to a stop before them.

Saeko smiled happily towards her own adoptive parents and as the 22-year-old mother bowed before them he noticed a tear in her eye. As she stood back upright, she wiped the stray tear away, "Mother, father," she greeted them, "It's so good to see you both again."

As Oyuki came forward and bowed to her grandparents she watched on as her mother was pulled into an endearing embrace by her parents before her grandfather looked down to her and pulled her into the four-way hug and held each other close.

"We missed you too."

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

Well, here you are guys. A first look into the grim new world that has come four years since the apocalypse and as you can see, no punches are being pulled with this new story. For a while i though heavily about whether or not to include the section describing about Major Henry West's horrible and morbid discoveries while taking charge of the new 'Home Guard' forces in his assigned county. I've read many stories set in the post-apocalypse and many of them have never touched upon what man is really capable of after the apocalypse and it wouldn't be hard to see why they would resort to doing such things instead of trying to help make the world a better place.

To my Zootopia readers, i'll be starting a new chapter for 'Days Gone Bye' next week and hope to have it ready sometime mid-February!

I hope that you all enjoyed reading this new chapter and rest assured a new chapter will be coming soon enough. If you enjoyed it please favorite, follow and review! Until then folks, take care and stay safe and see you all next time!

*Fun chapter fact: During my visit to San Antonio, Texas last September i got a chance to fire the anti-material rifle that Rika uses, the Barrett Model 99 and let me tell you folks that have never fired one, it was AWESOME! Right up until me and Jim got kicked outta the range, LOL!


	3. ARC I Chapter II: The Island

…

 **(Author's Notes at the bottom)**

Last Alarm:

Okinawa Offensive

Chapter 2

 _Tokonosu Naval Base – formerly the Tokonosu International Airport_

 _Navy Base/Survivor Residence_

 _Off the coast of Tokonosu City_

 _Two days later…_

It was weird, being back home after being away from the island for the last couple of weeks. Before, the longest Andrew had ever been away from the island was when he had gone back to England briefly with the other Regiment boys and back to Hereford to deal not only with his official paperwork and sorting out several of his own personal issues that had been long overdue for dealing with.

As he lay in bed beside Shizuka, his wife still gently snoozing beside him and with the door to the kid's bedroom open he could see that Alice and Akane were both still soundly asleep as well. Zeke had woken up just minutes after him, came trotting out of the girl's room and noticed he was awake before he wandered over and leaned against the side of their bed and he couldn't not pick up the Jack Russel pup and scratch behind the back of his ears as he stared off at the wall thinking about what he'd done whilst he'd been away.

His first stop had been to see his parents.

He would admit to this day that he had been slightly disappointed to see that they were still alive. But he had taken some pleasure when he had knocked on the door and his father had answered, a sawed-off double-barrelled shotgun in hand, and looked on in shock at the one-eyed man that was his son.

* * *

' _Hello father,' he chuckled as the old man sputtered and hearing those words had taken him a few seconds before he realised just who the stranger was standing before him. The last time he'd seen is soon had been back when Andrew had left home to join the Royal Marines and he hadn't been back since._

' _B…boy?' he whispered as he lowered the shotgun and looked embarrassed that he'd held the weapon on his own flesh and blood and set it aside on a table, 'Would…would you like to come in?'_

' _I can't stop long. I have somewhere else to go before I leave.' He had walked past the man and into the small house and as he looked around all the old memories of being in this house came flooding back to him._

' _Leave? You're leaving again?' his father asked but he didn't answer him. Instead, he walked through to the main living room where he would find his mother, sister and a brother-in-law that he hadn't known, or even cared, existed up to this point. When all eyes turned to him and the few moments it took for the women to realise who it was standing before them, he saw the looks of horror and they would quickly become looks of shame and regret._

 _They all knew how they had treated him since birth, the 'accident' he'd been called time and time again, before he left them so many years earlier and then to return a completely different person after being a Royal Marine, a Special Forces operator before being a merciless and ruthless mercenary only become an operator again for another country on the other side of the globe and to marry a wife that he knew his family wouldn't have approved of because of their own racial views of other people's races and religions._

' _Andrew?' his sister asked as she moved from the man that sat beside her and went to move to him, only for him to step away from her and growl at her, 'Sit!' he hissed and pointed back to the couch. The fear in her eyes was immediate and she immediately sat back down beside her husband, who gave him a hard stare to which he ignored._

 _His mother said nothing and he was just fine with that. He didn't come here to talk with them, he'd come to say his final goodbyes and give them a final gift of sorts. He turned to his father and handed the man a booklet along with the pack he slid off his back and placed it on the floor. The book contained a number of ration stamps that should last them for at least the next several months and in the pack contained numerous packets of seeds for planting and information leaflets as well for treating the earth to produce good crops and also how to purify water for drinking and another separate ration card for petrol as well._

' _I.., I don't…, why?' his father asked him._

' _Call it a final farewell gift. I suppose I owed you at least this much for putting me on this earth' and that was all he had to say. He had side-stepped around his father but the look he gave him said 'follow me' before they stepped back into the hallway by the front entrance._

' _What's the matter son?'_

' _I have a request'_

' _What is it lad?'_

' _Look after…them, for me. Look after them, for me, that's all I ask'_

 _It had taken his father a minute to realise who he was talking about before he nodded and gave a shaky sigh, 'Ofcourse, son'_

 _Andrew's own defences suffered for a brief moment. Never before in his life had his father ever called him 'son' before and to do so now just before he left…_

' _Goodbye, father.'_

* * *

As he lay in bed rubbed behind Zeke's ears, he heard the puppy whining and when he looked down to see what was wrong with the pup, he felt his own cheeks were damp. When he touched them, he felt the warm wetness of tears streaming down his cheeks. Even after four years it was still hard to believe that the first time his own father had ever acknowledged him as 'son' upset him to this day.

And it royally pissed him off.

Leaving that part of his life behind was meant to have been permanent, finished, done and fucking dusted. But hearing the man call him 'son' unearthed old memories, feeling and emotions that he had wanted to stay buried. He wondered if that bastard had said that just to make him feel like crap for leaving them behind forever after coming to visit them for the first time in over a decade.

He had wanted to go there, see them and to see how they were living but was disappointed as he had seen how they and the other families on the street seemed to be living with decent accommodation and had a sizeable Home Guard unit stationed in the village for protection.

But instead he had been the one to leave feeling even worse than he had when he had arrived.

Was it really a way to get under his skin by calling him that, or had it really been true regret and living with that painful knowledge of treating him like he wasn't a part of the family for nearly two decades that made him say it?

Looking around he saw that Shizuka was still sleeping peacefully and that the kids were still out for the count as well. Being an early Saturday morning, the kids didn't need to get up early for 'school' today and Shizuka wasn't due to be in the clinic for her shift until that afternoon, meaning they all got a chance to sleep in for a little while longer before they needed to start waking up and ready for the day ahead. Quietly, he climbed out of bed and gather up the small pile of clothes that sat on the dressing table and got dressed.

He slipped out of the room after quickly scribbling out a little note about 'taking Zeke out for a quick whizz, brb' before unlocking the door to their apartment and with the small pup running along beside him, he raced through the corridor and towards the main terminal before heading out towards the old runways.

* * *

He took Zeke for a quick run around the airfield and made sure to remember his tennis ball this time. Throwing the pup's toy across the runway and watching the dog chase at it he kept thinking back to the dream he'd had earlier that morning. Ofcourse it was all because he had been thinking about his previous deployments since the fall. Going back home and discovering his parents were still alive and then Green Troop's last deployment that shook them all more than they wanted to admit that last several weeks whilst raiding a foreign country for supplies and equipment.

Being the senior most member of the unit, save for Jim, who had experience combat at its grittiest is theatres of war all over the world during and after his time in the SAS originally before the Colonel had dragged him back into the fold. The battle for keeping the airport secure with the help of several police officers and a number of SAT officers assisting with the original evacuation efforts had solidified his position with re-joining the Regiment. And later when they had been cut off from command during the evacuation of several hundred civilians from the city where his unit was responsible with not only keeping them safe but fed at the same time and fighting not only the undead but a group of rouge survivors at the same time had nearly tipped him over the edge.

Zeke came rushing back to him once again. Ball lodged between his jaws, pleased as punch and wagging his tail as he dropped the ball in front of him before looking up at him expectantly and waiting for the ball to be thrown again.

They played on the field like this most days when he wasn't on deployment but normally, he would have either both the kids or Shizuka with him but today he needed some alone time. Getting his head together, he just needed some time to himself and to think about what had happened. The attack on the supply vessel had already reached the ears of most of the island's population and it made them wonder if they were safe from just such an attack as well. People were worried that they would have to face another threat and that was something that they could all have done without.

They had survived the past four years with the undead, winters, food shortages, lack of medicine and ofcourse the infection itself. Four years and still nobody knew exactly what it was. The thought of it being a bioweapon had gone out the window not long after the outbreak. While many had thought that at first it was something that was being used by a foreign power to weaken a countries defences and its people before an invasion force moved in to strike against them.

But this soon was proven to be wrong. There was no known country on the planet that hadn't been affected by the outbreak and dealing with the undead as well. Every known country that had the resources to make bioweapons; China, Russia, Pakistan, North Korean, Germany, Britain, France and several other countries with the resources to produce such things had all gone dark and satellites over these countries showed that their streets were teeming with creatures and littered with bodies. Plus, who would want to produce such a weapon that they had no control over that would affect their own country and that wouldn't burn out after a period of three to four days after the most damage was dealt?

Then came the people that Andrew had called 'god botherers'. People believing that the infection was the wrath of god and that we were all going to hell in a handbasket for our sins. What had made him and several others sick of them was when the old teacher who was tutoring the children in their classroom had tried to press this upon them and it hadn't been until Alice had come home one afternoon to their apartment and had asked if what the old man said was true if it was truly their fault.

Thinking back, the 'old' Andrew would have marched straight up to the teacher and would have punched him hard in the face. Instead, he had gone to him to ask him not to push his beliefs on his kids but instead had been forced to keep him safe when the other parents had heard what their children had been taught by the old man and had come after him with knives with the intent to cut him up and use him as fish bait.

He had nearly let it happen too if not for the thought about how it would reflect badly on him if he didn't try and neutralize the situation before it turned ugly. Plus, he was thinking that if he was seen helping the old man then not only him but likely his family would have been targeted too by the other parents and this he couldn't allow.

He had just been relieved when Sakura had arrived with the island's police force to disperse the crowd and relinquish the make-shift weapons from the parents that had come to kill the teacher. When Sakura had been about to take the teacher away and have him replaced with somebody else to teach the children in their classes, he had said how he was a man that would soon see the errors of his ways and that the infected would strike him and his family down if he didn't repent.

Who had he been kidding?

He still punched the old fucker in the face.

* * *

Shizuka had been awake for a little over an hour but had remained in her bed. She splayed her fingers over the sheets where her husband's warmth could still be felt through her finger tips but as the minutes ticked by, she could feel it dissipate. She sighed, knowing that soon Alice-Chan and Akane-Chan would be getting up and busying themselves to be ready for the day ahead.

Even though Andrew-San had been home for a couple of days and had spent nearly every waking moment with them she had also seen the distant look in his eyes, the real once anyway, and couldn't help but worry about him.

She had only seen this look once before and that had been back when Akane was only a few months old and he had only just returned from the United Kingdom, his home country, in the middle of the night and when she woke up the following morning to her surprise found him sitting in a chair across the room from her with Akane in his arms and talking to her quietly about how he'd been to visit his wife and daughter back home. She remembered how he spoke about his daughter and how she and Akane looked so alike when they were the same age and how they would both have probably looked exactly the same as well when they had grown up.

But then she also remembered listening about how he spoke about meeting his family; his mother, father, sister and a brother-in-law that he had no idea about. She had pretended to be asleep and listened as he spoke and felt tears running down her cheeks as he spoke to Akane about how his mother had completely ignored him during his brief visit and how his father seemed to be a frail and pathetic version of the horrible man he once knew and listened as he down played about how much he had wanted to knock out the old man but instead completely cuts all ties with his birth family, something she had known he had wanted to do for years, and the same went with his name as well.

This had surprised her and many others greatly. During their wedding ceremony he had announced that he would be taking Shizuka's name instead of the traditional method of how she would have taken his name instead. So now, it was only during military operations where he would keep the name 'Poynton' to avoid confusion amongst those that knew him but in private with family and friends would he be known as Andrew Marikawa.

"Mommy?" she heard Akane calling for her. She quickly pushed herself up in the bed until she was sitting before swinging her legs out over the side and made her way towards where her daughter stood at the door to her and her sisters' room still wearing her sleeping gown and holding her blue rabbit doll.

"Good morning, Akane-Chan," she smiled at her child and crouched down in front of her, "Are you okay sweetie?" she asked and ran her fingers through Akane's hair.

"Hmm-huh," she hummed as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "Where's daddy?"

"He took Zeke out for a walk. He should be back soon. Is your sister up yet?"

* * *

"Only the likes of you can draw in so many children," Andrew grumbled at the dog that trotted along behind him with his ball and tail wagging happily. The Jack Russel had a knack for getting the attention of the kids on the island since there weren't many dogs save for military working dogs.

As they approached the apartments he remembered how not too long ago when he and Tajima had been out on the runway with Zeke how the sniper had asked if he could take Zeke for a walk some time. Curious as to the reason why, the day he had shown up and said he would only be an hour, he had followed him through the terminal and out on to the airfield before watching where Tajima divert away from the path too where they normally took the pup before heading towards the terminal itself towards a group of women.

He'd seen some ridiculous things in his time, but never before had he known a man to use a dog to try and bag himself a woman. He had thought about walking up and asking how chatting up a group of women with his dog was meant to be talking him for a walk, but instead he had walked away and waited to see how it all turned out for him.

It was less than an hour later he remembered how Tajima had returned with Zeke and a visible palm print covering the right side of the trooper's face and he had laughed out loud so hard he had started crying and tumbled to the floor as his team mate stood at the door still holding the dog with a look of hate on his face.

As he reached the apartments, Zeke zipped ahead of him before sitting down in front of the door, looking up at it and wagged his tail while waiting for it to open. He grumbled several times before reaching up with his paw and scratched the door when the pup heard the door behind being opened and he quickly zipped around and found himself rushing forward and sniffing the boots of the man that was stood over him.

"Whoa, ease up Zeke," Jim chuckled as the pup's tail went into overdrive and the dog began doing a little dance to show his excitement of the man turning up.

"Morning lad," Andrew greeted his friend as he approached before leaning against the wall and smiling down at the dog as he continued to beg for fuss from the Texan and eventually Jim gave in and crouched down to ruffle the pup's ears.

"Morning buddy. What're you doin' up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep and little guy here needed a bathroom break," he shrugged and rubbed his tired eyes.

"Go back to bed for a bit buddy. We're not back on duty for a few days yet so get some rest while ya can. Rika's heard we're gonna be in a meeting on Monday anyway with the top brass," Jim said as he picked up Zeke and scratched the pup between the ears.

"Top brass? Normally we don't have any contact with any of those lot directly except for either Ihara or Takagi," Andrew muttered as he leaned against the door to his family's lodgings.

"Well we'll hear about it when the time's right, I guess. But for now, go home and get some rest."

Giving his buddy a fist bump as they headed their separate ways, he couldn't help but yawn as he entered his family lodgings. As he walked inside, he found Shizuka sitting on the bed with Alice sat in front of her as her mother helped tie her hair into a ponytail and Akane sitting on the bed playing with her dolls. The moment Zeke ran in between his legs and started yapping was when the girls looked up and watched him close the door behind himself and remove his boots before making his way over to the bed and sit beside his wife.

"You okay?" Shizuka asked him quietly as he nuzzled into her side in front of the girls.

"Hmm?" he hummed before moving back and smiling at her, "Hmm, yeah, just a little tired is all," he said and looked at the girls, "And just what are you two little darlings up to today then?" he asked.

"Me and Akane-Chan are going to play with Miyamoto-Senpai and Takagi-Senpai, papa," Alice said as she turned back around to look at him as he leaned back against Shizuka.

"That's nice. Got anything planned?"

"Probably hear from Saya-Chan about how you're keeping here boyfriend away from her with his Special Forces training and probably the same from Rei-Chan as well about how Takashi-Kun is always working in the workshops," Shizuka tittered as she finished with Alice's hair and patted her on the shoulders to let her know she was finished.

As he lay on the bed and watched his girls gathering up books, toys and even a couple of their DVD's he smiled when he saw them both take an MRE and place them in their packs along with a small flashlight each and Alice's baton that had been a gift of sorts from Rika. Shizuka, like any concerned mother, had been very concerned about her daughter having and carrying such a weapon to defend herself but after a few incidents during the first months on the island when a woman had been attacked and another in the process of being assaulted before being caught by the island's police force convinced her to allow her to carry it but only to be used to defend herself and her sister if it was absolutely necessary.

Andrew knew that Alice had handled firearms a few times but only briefly and the only time she had fired one was when she had used Saya's Luger Artillery pistol at the Takagi compound years ago when the outbreak first started. Honestly, even he hadn't been too thrilled with his kids having to carry defensive weapons but this unfortunately wasn't a perfect world.

* * *

When the girls had left the apartment when Saya Takagi and Rei Miyamoto had arrived to pick up the girls to take them to their lodgings with their parents that had a brief chat with him about their boyfriends. He'd told them both that he'd been keeping an eye on the pair and knew that they both had leave coming up soon. Kohta's training with the other S.F teams would soon be coming to an end and he would either be drafted into the JSDF's Special Forces Groups, or SFG, or possibly Green Troop if he decided to take extra training.

Rika and Tajima, even though the pair had been trained by several different Special Forces teams over the years when they were training to become members of the Special Assault Team had also taken the same training course three years earlier when he and Mikhail had been the only two operators on the team and when Jim had healed from his wounds and had adequate recovery time he had also taken the training course to become a Green Troop operator. So, if Kohta wanted to become a member of the unit he would need to work for it and prove himself. Just because they knew each other and was one of the famous 'Tokonosu Ten' didn't mean anything to him of the others.

Takashi was another matter. It hadn't been even a few weeks before he had signed up with the JSDF regular forces along with a few dozen other civilians to help defend their last piece of Japanese soil that wasn't claimed by the undead. Since joining up he had numerous jobs within the ground forces and he had a knack for working in the workshops building armour plating for the vehicles that were used to go into the city on occasion and even some unique looking melee weapons such as swords and spears that he had designed from the ground up, with the assistance or Rei and Saeko ofcourse with their designs.

But at the same time, he was also involved with ammunition production and with the continuous missions both at home in Tokonosu and abroad when teams like G-T went deep into the south-east they always needed a decent supply of munitions to keep not only themselves but regular forces working as well, so his skills with production were highly sought after.

Watching the girls leave with their daughters and Zeke on his leash, under the watchful eye of a JSDF Ranger escorting them that stuck close to Saya thanks to her parents, they retreated back into their room and it hadn't even been a moment after closing the door that Shizuka grabbed a hold of him of pushed him down onto the bed. This caught him off guard but only briefly. She hadn't pushed him down with any real force but just enough to make him sit down and to stay put. He watched her lock the door to their room before turning around to face him before she approached him and sat on her side of the large bed before motioning for him to lie beside her.

For several minutes the couple made themselves comfortable just by being in each other's presence. Shizuka was stroking his hair from his eyes as he moved close enough so they had their arms wrapped around each other. He was tired and Shizuka knew that he just wanted to hold her close for as long as possible until she had to leave for her shift in the clinic.

It was when she was stroking her hand through his hair that she felt him relaxing to her touch. Back when they were first together, he wouldn't allow anybody near him. She remembered the first night they had spent at the elementary school together just a few hours after he and Rika had found her and the group of survivors that had escaped both the Takagi mansion and the Taiei shopping mall together when they had been found wandering the streets after they had become separated from Jimu-San. She had found him alone in a classroom alone sitting near an open window. His head had been bowed and a smoking cigarette was held between his fingers as he rested.

She had moved to remove it only for his hand to shoot out and grab her by the wrist. She still remembered the look she received from him when their eyes met properly for the first time. What little she had seen and heard about him from Jimu-San before their brief separation was that he was 'quiet a character' as he had put it. But the emotionless gaze that she remembered had scared her more than the infected the first time she had come across one.

She knew he was dangerous, unpredictable and frighteningly brutal and vicious when it came to fighting both the undead and hostile human survivors that had tried to bring harm to the survivors in the school as they waited for enough helicopters to be prepared for a full-scale evacuation of Tokonosu.

But she had never been more frightened of the man that would eventually become her husband and the father of her children when he had stood side-by-side with Jimu-San during a brief fight against several youths that had come forward with the intent of killing them. Andrew had said "A target is just a target, doesn't matter if it's a kid or not when they're trying to kill ya" before she had watched him plunge the knife he'd held into the stomach of a teenager who had tried to cut him with a butterfly knife before yanking the blade out and kicking the boy away before moving on to another.

But now, looking down at the man that lay before her, almost at her mercy as she held him close, made her wonder just how much he had altered after she had told him about when she was pregnant with Akane. But she knew that somewhere deep within him was what he called 'the monster' that he tried to bury, so deep that it would never see the light of day ever again.

And one day, she knew that eventually he was going to have to face those demons.

"So, what's the matter?" she began, asking him calmly and quietly so he could just hear her but not sound as though she was demanding an answer. She felt him stiffen for a brief moment before it passed and he relaxed once again in her arms. She knew he still wasn't one for sitting around or lying in bed like this, being a man of action all the time took its toll on the man and she would have to take charge in order for him to just be with her for a while so they could just relax.

He sighed before he spoke, "I'm just tired sweetheart," he said, "With all that's happened over the last several weeks while we were away and then finding the people aboard the supply vessel had been attacked and turned…, it just starts to pile up."

Shizuka had wondered just how bad things had been while he had been away. She hadn't gotten a whole lot out of either Rika or Jimu-San and she hadn't seen either Tajima or Mikhail to know where they had been on their deployment other than they had sailed near Vietnam and Cambodia. The only piece of information she had heard about her husband's whereabouts during their mission had come from Minister Takagi and General Ihara was when they had sailed close to Singapore to a long since abandoned U.S naval base where the base personnel had evacuated when the outbreak began and had supported the navy engineers with raiding the base for it's large fuel reserves and also the ammunition stores. It hadn't been a walk in the park they had later told her. During the operation they had been joined with several Marines from the Raider Regiment and when they had been pumping what fuel remained from the large storage tanks, they had been attacked by the unlucky navy personnel that hadn't been able to evacuate from the base when it was locked down and two of the Raiders were killed in the ambush.

While they had managed to escape without further casualties, they had been forced to leave the bodies of the Marines behind. She could only imagine the sour taste it had left in their mouths having to leave the fallen behind but they had no choice having being ambushed and pursued by more than three hundred of the undead. They couldn't allow the engineers to come to any harm and the captain of the ship couldn't risk his ship being overrun either.

There was something that she was certain of though. Any soldier, whether they were a Soldier, Marine, Ranger, Seal, Sailor, Airman or a member of any of the other type of military forces on the island, they wouldn't allow their brethren to become one of them. Even if that meant they were still alive when they had been bitten or infected.

"You know you can talk to me, right?" she asked him quietly, "Doesn't matter what it's about. Whether it's about work or just something that's on your mind, I'll always be here to listen. Okay?" and it took a moment before she was given a slight nod that he'd heard her.

* * *

It was a few days later when Green Troop found themselves sitting in the large meeting room that was usually reserved for the island council. With Takagi being the Prime Minister of the remaining Japanese people on the island and several other colonies that ran up and down the country, except for several smaller colonies that refused to accept his position because of his past political affiliations with the government, they were also meeting with several other council members that represented both the military and the civilian population of the island.

The five operators hated being the center of attention and especially when they were confronting the council. When they had arrived, the guards had made them disarm, much to their discomfort of going anywhere without carrying at least one weapon, and upon entering the room they were seated across from the council members that were waiting to talk with them about the supply ship that had been attacked.

They discussed the pirates and what they had said about being contacted by another vessel. Because there was no evidence, or any way to prove what they had said was the truth, they would likely have been sentenced to death by firing squad. However, it was because of the unique shell casings they had found aboard the supply ship after the attackers had fled after calling in the pirates was so far their only saving grave.

One of the members of the council, Arashi Mikami, asked what was so 'unique' and that a gun was just a gun. The man had once been a surgeon that worked in the general hospital back in the city and it surprised most people how after handling the few rare victims of gun violence how he couldn't tell the wounds left by certain calibers of ammunition. When explained how the difference of a few millimetres in caliber could leave both small and large exit wounds and that the rifle that only fired this particular caliber of ammunition wasn't amongst the pirates confiscated arsenal only pressed them further to argue that they had possibly thrown the rifle overboard.

"Unlikely," Andrew had said, "You want to know why?"

"Yes, please, I would like to know," the doctor all but hissed.

Ordering the soldier at the door to bring a package that he had brought with him from the troop's armoury, the soldier disappeared out the door and returned a moment later carrying a silver metal case and set it down on the table, "Please, open the case and remove what's inside and hold it up for all to see," he asked and the soldier did as requested. A moment later the case was opened and the soldier reached inside to produce two different rifles, a Chinese AK and a Chinese QBZ-95 assault rifle.

"Most of you'll know this rifle," Andrew pointed to the AK, "The legendary AK-47 assault rifle. However, this is a Chinese reproduction called the Type 56. There are few minor differences and the basic design is pretty much the same. The other rifle," he pointed out, "Is the rifle that uses the particular ammunition we found aboard the ship that was attacked. However, this rifle we've taken from our own arms stash just to show you the rifle that was used. But this wasn't found amongst the arms we took from the pirates."

"And again, I ask; how do we not know it wasn't thrown overboard?" The doctor seemed quite eager to make the pirates out to be the ones responsible for the attack.

Looking through the people on the council, his eyes shifted over to Takagi and then to the woman that was sitting at the end of the tables, his wife. Shizuka had been quiet the whole time she there as had many of the other members but even they seemed to be curious to the doctor's question as well.

"While we do have quite a sufficient amount of ammunition left for our own weapons; 5.56 and 7.62's, we know that one day we're gonna run short on ammo and that's why we have guns like these in our arsenal. Because when we run through the last mags on our carbines, we're gonna use whatever's at hand, even weapons like these, which I'd rather not do but we won't have a choice."

He then stood up and leaned against the table before continuing, "Despite what we might remember from the old world about getting rid of the evidence and not wanting to be caught, a lot of people know the difference about not caring if they get caught because, who's gonna care?" he asked honestly.

"People won't dispose of weapons that'll help prolong their lives just because they'll be accused of something they haven't done. Sure, they'll likely be accused and blamed so we'll take our eyes off the real bad guys, the one's that called them in and told them about the ship."

"Besides, we found more than just that one caliber that didn't match any of the weapons we confiscated," he said before removing a small clear plastic wallet from his pocket and held it up for all to show, "We have several calibers here, all foreign and none match any of what the pirates had," before placing it on the desk before the doctor to examine, "I'm not expecting you to know the calibers for each different guns that exists but I know this; those pirates are likely scum of the earth and I'm not defending them," he admitted clearly for all to hear, "We found some nasty shit onboard those boats they were sailing around in and I'm all for having them either executed or to be exiled to the wastes. Because I will not have those bastards here on this island with my kids or any of other kids or families that live here."

"So, what do you propose?" another council member, Yuuki Sagiri, asked as she fiddled with the fountain pen in her hands while leaning forward and waited for an answer.

"That's not for me to decide Councilwoman Sagiri-San," he spoke professionally, "I'm a mere soldier that helps defend the people of this island and keep the scum and the filth on the mainland. The final decision on what happens with the pirates is up to the council."

The meeting progressed for another hour with the troop being questioned not only about the incident aboard the supply ship, but about the other countries that were visited during their travels. Mentioning their insertions into costal towns and villages of both Cambodia and Vietnam and then raiding the naval bases and then hitting the American naval base in Singapore for refuelling and grabbing whatever supplies had been left in the storage warehouses, things still weren't looking good for mankind.

They talked in detail about how Vietnam was a complete mess and that they had come into contact with hundreds of the undead the moment they had got within a few miles of the city of Ho Chi Minh City. They had seen obvious signs that there had been survivors on rooftops of many buildings. Large signs had hastily written messages for help to anybody passing over in a helicopter or any other type of aircraft that could assist them. But seeing nothing more than bodies that littered the streets and the walking corpses that pursued the helicopter that flew over the city back towards the coast they had to have guessed that the city was lost to the dead and there had to have been more than a few hundred thousand of them walking the streets.

They had spotted several 'runners' during their insertion into Cambodia and guessed that they had to have been recently turned victims of the disease. Just hearing this was disheartening for the council, only Takagi and Shizuka weren't phased by this news since they had already been informed about them earlier.

They did however say about how when sailing back through the South China Sea they had passed the Philippines and Taiwan and reported on seeing many other survivors on the islands. While many wouldn't think it possible to survive with so many people and limited resources it was amazing how they discovered how many other people they had found when sailing past and seeing later how they had being managing after all this time.

They had been setting up rooftop gardens that had been overflowing with fresh produce and water purifiers that had been salvaged from a Chinese battleship that had been scuttled was now being used to turn hundreds of thousands of gallons of sea water into fresh clean drinking water for the island's inhabitants every day. The survivors on the island got their water from a similar source, only it came from several ships that were anchored off in the bay and daily transports would bring over purified water in barrels stored in containers.

* * *

"So, what do you think their decision will be?" Tajima asked as they walked back towards the main terminal away from the meeting room after they had been excused for the remainder of it. It was nearing lunch time and the team had missed lunch but if they were quick, they could still get some of the leftovers, otherwise they'll get stuck with picking through their MRE's again for something decent that wasn't dried or salted.

"Honestly lad, I'm beyond giving a toss. Pirates are pirates at the end of the day. Might have or might not have killed the people on that ship, but they admitted to targeting and hitting other supply ships and settlements over the years…so, fuck 'em," Andrew shrugged.

"Wow, never thought you'd be so cold towards other living humans Andrew-San," Rika said with surprise a moment later.

"And? They've killed people since the outbreak. People that were just trying their best to survive the world and all of the shit being thrown at them every single day, the people that really mattered and you're giving me shit about the fuckers that caused them even more misery before they killed them?" he snapped back at her.

"It's just that you were pretty defensive of them back there is all I'm saying," she grumbled in return as they entered the main terminal building and headed straight towards the food court where, luckily, it seemed the cooks had extended the dinner period for the late arrivals.

"No, all I showed them back there was that while they might not have been the ones responsible for the deaths of the people on that ship, even though I'd still say hang the bastards, we've potentially got a new threat out there to deal with."

As the five operators got in line with their trays to receive their rations for the lunchtime meal it began playing on their minds about the high probability of their being a new threat to the island and its inhabitants. They already had enough problems with the lack of food, medical supplies and fuel as it was. While they had the gardens and greenhouses for growing their food and the few medicinal herbs as well and there were talks about them hooking up the USS George Washington's nuclear reactor to power the islands generators and the electrical grid connected to it…they couldn't remain here any longer.

There had been 37 new born children on the island over the last few years and there were many other families that wanted to have some privacy away from the others so that they too could have a family. They needed somewhere real to not only survive, but to live.

Start again.

* * *

"So, what happened after we left?" Andrew asked from the bathroom softly as Shizuka sat at the foot wearing only her evening gown while watching the wall-mounted television and one of the late-night anime's that was being shown on the islands network on low volume but so that she could still hear it. The last thing she wanted was to disturb the girls after it took nearly an hour to get them both to bed. She couldn't make head-nor-tails out of the show, especially the vampire who wore sunglasses and a large red coat and hat whilst wielding two large pistols and turning other vampires to dust when they had either been shot or when thrusting his hand through their chests.

"Not much else really," she replied as she looked up as he appeared at the door with a towel around his waist and she just watched as he ran a razor up under his chin to remove the last of the stubble that had grown over the last few weeks, "They senior members of the council will decide tomorrow on how to deal with the pirates. But with all of the evidence against them raiding and killing other survivors we'll likely just be executing them."

Andrew looked from the television to Shizuka and just looked at her for a moment after what she had just said. A few years ago he would never have thought that the bubbly, sweet and kind-hearted nurse would ever be able to say such words but after four years of living through the apocalypse and being stuck on an island while raising two kids and having a husband that was away a lot of the time of missions either on the mainland or out at sea of ship protection detail had toughened her up. He knew that it wasn't fair to be away from her all the time and what little time they had together in private when the kids stayed a night or two with either Jimmy and Rika or Saya and Hirano whenever they wanted some 'private time', was normally spent sleeping in each other arms after thoroughly fucking each other's brains out.

As he finished cleaning himself up, he returned to the bedroom wearing a pair of shorts and climbed under the sheets beside his wife as she snuggled close but they both continued to watch the show as the vampire, Alucard, had finished laying waste to the vampire 'ghouls' and was now cradling the 'police girl' in his arms. He missed what he asked the girl but watched as he went in to bite her and the shot altered to the next scene.

As the couple watched the episode come to an end and another began it was Shizuka who reached over for the remote and turned off the television before turning off the bedside lamp and turned so that she was facing him. Removing her robe beneath the blankets and dropping it on the floor she moved so she was flush against her husband and she smirked as she got a reaction out of him that caused him to growl.

"So," she began as she deliberately wiggled her body against his and he groaned in frustration, "What are your plans for the next couple of weeks?"

He grumbled something she couldn't understand before he took a breath, "Right now," he paused as she wiggled again, "Not sure. Until we hear from either Takagi or Ihara, we're on stand down orders-" he was cut off as he felt her push her breasts against his bare chest and he shuddered at the touch, "Means I'm going to be at home for at least a week or two."

"Hmm," Shizuka smiled happily, "Means you can spend some time with me and the girls. God knows we need-ahh!" she gasped suddenly when she felt him touching her very delicately with smooth and deliberate strokes between her legs against her smooth vulva. The simplest and delicate of touches he knew would be enough to make her come to orgasm if he continued, so he stopped after just a few light touches and moved his hand away. When she realised what he had done she looked back to him and saw he was completely calm and straight faced as he spoke, "Yeah, hopefully we'll be able to get together with Jim, Rika and a few of the kids. I know that Alice misses being with the whole group and Akane has also started asking questions about them and what they did before that brought them together," he smiled, knowing that she was frustrated.

She puffed out her cheeks as he gave her a wicked smile in return, "But, that's then. Tonight," he shifted forward until he was lying overtop of her as she grabbed for his shorts and pulled them down until he was able to kick them away himself and opened her legs and lined himself up with her slick opening, "Let me just love you."

* * *

 ** _Author's Notes:_**

Hey guys, i'm so sorry about the long delay since the last upload. Ever since the end of January it's been impossible to find a lot of free time to work on any of my projects on this website since work doubled down and with a change of management as well, along with a lot of people leaving at the same time, i've been doing more shifts than i'd like to and when i get home i'm too tired to want to put 'pen to paper'. Anyway, this chapter was originally going to be a lot longer but it's going to serve as a break between the action between now and the coming chapters over the next couple of months. I can't guarantee when the next one will be out since i'm currently in the middle of finishing a chapter for FMJ's main story of 'Last Alarm' and another author with bits and pieces for their story at the same time but i will try and get one out at least once a month.

Anyway, i hope that you all enjoyed the chapter. In the next chapter we'll be back on operations a few weeks later from this point in time and we'll be at a prelude for another point in the story, that both me and Jim are looking forward to sharing with you all, that'll be leading up to the taking of Okinawa.

Until then, take care folks, stay safe and see y'all next time!

P.S: If anyone found the two easter eggs i've put in this chapter, good for you!


	4. ARC I Chapter III: Fallen Comrade

…

 _ **(Author's Notes at bottom)**_

Last Alarm:

Okinawa Offensive

Chapter 3

 _All he could do was run. And run he did. He had no idea how many of those things were on his tail and he sure as hell didn't want to know either. He hadn't even had the chance to catch a breath when he had dropped down from the runway through one of the vent coverings and down into the old utility tunnels that ran beneath the runway and most of the airport itself. No matter how hard he tried or how fast he ran, one of those freaks would be right on his arse in just a matter of seconds._

 _This forced him to take drastic action._

 _Blind-fire was something he had never done, not out of sound mind and body anyway, during a mission. But right now, this was anything but a mission, it was a fight for survival and Andrew knew that if he didn't use every trick in the book that he had, he wouldn't be making it back home._

' _Gotta get back to the others! Gotta reach the main terminal and evacuate! Get Shizuka and the kids onboard one of those helicopters and get the fuck outta dodge!' were the only thoughts running through his head as he let out a roar of anger as he jumped over a pipe that ran across the ground and at the same time whipped around the Minebea 9mm machine pistol he had taken from a deceased JSDF trooper guarding the hangers where the civilians slept and sprayed a continuous burst until his boots touched the ground, and he took off running again._

 _Quickly looking at the weapon he noticed the bolt was closed, and with no spare magazines to use he tossed the useless weapon back towards the pursuing creatures and carried on running._

 _He knew he wasn't far from an access point now. He had lived on this damned island long enough to know that there were over fifty points around the entire island that joined the tunnels to the runway alone with eight larger ones for maintenance access._

 _And then he saw it. Barely thirty yards ahead there was a ladder leading up towards the runway. As he got closer, he could already hear the gunfire coming from up above and he was hoping that the Marines and the JSDF were pushing the tidal wave of the undead back. Flinging himself up towards the ladder he started climbing three rungs at a time the creatures quickly started to catch up with him. Half way up he felt their rotten fingertips trying to grab hold of the leather of his boot, but it was quickly dealt with by an angry stomp to the offending creatures' hand and wrist._

 _He emerged onto the runway, and immediately thought that being chased by the horde down below that were hissing and growling up towards him seemed an almost better option than facing what he was seeing now._

 _The Marines were fighting back alright, and losing terribly. Wherever he looked all he could see were the few dozen troops that was still combat capable were fighting some creatures with their bare hands and fighting knives. A couple had either M16 assault rifle or a pistol. He watched one Marine jam the muzzled of their rifle into the face of one creature and fire a burst, blowing out the back of its head and spraying blood and brain matter over several other creatures._

 _Elsewhere he heard an explosion, vehicles driving around and even a helicopter hovering overhead and its mounted autocannon barking and large shell casings raining down all around him. But even with all this, none of it could drown out the hungered wails and growls of the dead._

 _He had to move, get to the main terminal and get onboard of the evacuation choppers. He wanted to help, stay and fight alongside his fellow troopers fight back the scourge that plagued the island. But with only his small back-up sidearm with only 8-rounds of 9mm Hollow-Points before he was completely empty, he had no choice but to run._

 _Running through the chaos all he could think was that this wasn't a battlefield, this was hell on earth and couldn't stop thinking that the next thing he'd be seeing was Lucifer himself popping out of the ground…if he actually believed any of that stuff his parents or the teachers at his primary school had actually tried to drill into him many years earlier. He would occasionally have to stop and duck an attack from an undead that came swinging its arms but would then immediately go after another of the survivors fighting on the airfield._

 _Reaching the terminal, he raced through the open doors that had been smashed apart, shattered glass and blood smearing the ground where bodies had been dragged and shell casings in their hundreds scattered amongst it all._

 _As he moved through the devastation suddenly the world around him began to alter. The terminal building was falling apart, the ceiling itself was collapsing and the support beams buckled, collapsed and fires began to bloom all around. Coming to a stop amongst it all he looked around, trying to get his bearing. He had no idea what was happening or even how it was happening but all he knew was that he had to ignore it._

 _It couldn't be real, none of it could be real…could it?_

 _He gasped as he ran through the accumulation of smoke and dust, coughing as he emerged from the cloud and felt as though he was about to cough up a lung._

 _No, there was no time for that…find the others, protect them, keep them safe!_

 _No matter what the cost!_

 _Up ahead he saw the stairs that would lead him up towards the Private Lounge where he remembered was the SAT's base of operations years ago when the outbreak had first spread across the globe and they were operating from the lounge as a centralised location to deploy if there was an undead incursion into the building where they had been protecting over several hundred civilian survivors. But they had been forced to quickly abandon it when a force of nearly double that amount of the undead stormed the airport, killing many survivors and police officers in the process._

 _But reaching the lounge he found it to be immaculate. The bar itself was fully stocked with all type of fancy liquors known to man, including a few brands even he didn't know about, and the couches, tables and the bar weren't covered with weapons and munitions._

' _None of this is making any sense' he thought. Why the hell was the world falling apart all around him and yet this place was immaculate?_

 _A part of him figured that, even though he wanted to deny it, the private lounge with all of its booze was something of a comfort zone for him and that was why this place was clean and in order while everything else was a complete mess._

' _Come on Andy, focus! Get to Shizuka and the kids! They're waiting on you!'_

 _Turning around and rushing out of the lounge he came to a sudden stop and he felt the blood drain from his face. Standing slumped roughly thirty feet in front of him and blocking his access to the private areas of the terminal was a zombie. But this was just any zombie…_

" _Mikhail?"_

 _The Russian was slouched over and hadn't looked to be moving. But the moment he spoke his name the trooper's head snapped around at an impossible angle and Andrew couldn't help but be revolted seeing the man's eyes had been gouged out and most of his face was rotting away as well and all of the colour had drained away, leaving his skin a sickly grey. The only way he had known for sure it was his team mate was from the short-cropped hair and the gore splattered uniform that was only issued to Green Troop operators. Nearby on the ground lay Mikhail's machete, the same one he had used in Tokonosu during the outbreak nearly five years ago, only it was caked with gore and the blade itself was broken and nearby lay a corpse of an infected with half a broken blade sticking out of its forehead._

" _I'm sorry, brother," he chocked as he raised the SIG-Sauer P239 and for a brief moment before he could end his friends suffering, he hesitated, then fired. In that brief moment Andrew had hoped that his comrade would recognise him but how the creature had started rushing towards him despite being blind, there'd been nothing left of the old trooper._

 _He leapt over Mikhail's body and ran. Behind him he could hear the wails of the dead and knew it wouldn't be long before they were on his heels once again. All he could do now was run. There was no point looking back at Mikhail's body and sending a prayer he knew the dead man wouldn't hear, it was pointless._

 _Most of the run was a blur but he did see things that stuck out through it all. Seeing the fallen bodies of comrades, the faces of people he fought to save and protect and many more people that he would see and talk with on a daily basis. At one point he even came across Sakura's fallen corpse and thought it odd how he came across this man's body here._

" _How the hell are you here?" he asked aloud as he stood over the body, "You…you died in Tokonosu!"_

" _That's right," an eerie voice came from the body and Andrew jumped back away from the body as the head titled up towards him and it took a lot for him not to throw up when he saw Sakura's face. His body was slouched back against the corner of the hallway, shell casings and empty magazines around him, his empty MP5A3 laying in his lap and his black overalls had been torn apart with large bloody chunks of flesh and muscle ripped away. But the most disturbing thing was the self-inflicted gunshot wound from the empty Heckler & Koch USP 9mm that was gripping in his gloved hand. It looked as though Sakura had put the muzzle under his chin and decided to end his life with the last bullet he had left. But instead of the bullet going into his brain his jaw was shattered with only strings of flesh keeping it together and then his top lip, his nose and up to his scalp was a line that the bullet had cut through._

" _You…you left me to die," the voice came from Sakura as the hand gripped the empty pistol steadily started to rise up before Andrew aimed his own pistol at the dead man, both now keeping their weapons trained on each other._

" _No, fuck you! I didn't get you killed! You died because you got reckless! You went off after that girl in the city and you went and got yourself torn apart by a fucking horde! Even when we told you not to go!" Andrew angrily shouted at the corpse, "If it's anyone's fault that you got killed it's yours, dumb shit!"_

" _You could have stopped me," Sakura now giggled at him, the strands of mangled flesh making Andrew ill as he listened to him talk, "You and the others. But no, you left me to go all on my own…" which was followed by another disturbing giggle._

 _This was pointless. Andrew knew that this wasn't real and just standing here as he could hear the dead approach and they were getting closer with each passing second._

" _Yeah, well, maybe you should have listened to us instead of running off and playing the fucking hero," he spat before angrily kicking the corpse in the head, breaking the neck and knocking the body over before running towards the staircase that would lead towards the rooftops where the helipads were located._

 _Climbing the staircase, he could hear the familiar sounds of helicopters flying overhead and the familiar groan as one was setting down on the rooftop and was followed by gunfire, M16's from the sounds of them and at least one mounted machine gun from the helicopter, and the shouts and screams of panicked survivors._

' _They're here! They're right here!'_

 _He was anxious now. He had trusted Jimmy and Rika to get Shizuka and the girls to the helipad and get them on the first helicopter available. And right now, he would be able to escape with them._

 _But as he approached the top of the final flight of stairs the gunfire lessened, the helicopter's propellers sounded as though they were no longer coming from the rooftop but as though they were in flight._

 _Bursting out into the open air of the rooftop of the administration building he came to an abrupt stop and couldn't stop the tears that began to stream down his cheeks. There was a helicopter on the rooftop helipad still but it was now laying on its side, black smoke billowing from the inside and on the ground lay the bodies of dozens of dead Marines and the survivors they had been sent to rescue._

 _But most disturbingly nearby stood many of the dead, all of them were focused directly on him and they all look as though they were poised, and ready to strike the moment he gave them a reason too. Looking towards the mass of mangled bodies he couldn't see anyone or anybody that resembled his family, his friends or his team. Near the helicopter stood a large gathering of creatures, but unlike the others their attention wasn't focused on him but on something else._

 _Stepping forward he was already being intercepted by the creatures. But they didn't attack him, but move to stand in front of him and angrily bare their broken and bloody teeth at him and snarl to he responded by placing the muzzle of the pistol to its forehead, "Move…now!"_

 _Surprisingly enough, the thing listened to him and slowly it stumbled backwards out of his way and he started to advance, slowly, through the crowd and towards the helicopter and towards the gathering group of bodies that all seemed to be huddled around something that was just out of view._

" _Move…"_

 _His voice was no longer hard and firm, but trembling and terrified with what he would find._

 _As he had told them, the creatures steadily turned to look at him and with a firm look they all steadily started to step aside to give him a clear view of what they had been clustered around and…_

" _No…," was the only word out of his mouth as he stepped forwards towards the cluster of bodies that lay on the ground. All of them were broken, bloodied and looked as though they had been put through a meat grinder._

 _But what was most disturbing was that even though he knew he was shouting and screaming he could hear nothing as he fell to his knees and his eye was fixated at the bloody splattered teddy bear that was being gripped onto by a small bloody hand._

* * *

This was life for Andrew right now. Waking up in the middle of the night, seemingly every night for the last five weeks between midnight and sunrise in a cold sweat, shivering and tears streaming from his eye. At least he had managed to control himself enough now he was waking up with a sudden gasp instead of a shout or a scream. All too often in the days after the monumental fuck-up of an operation in the Tokonosu docks, he'd woken up screaming and terrifying both the girls and Shizuka to the point where he knew he needed help.

Only problem was in the apocalypse there was a shortage of shrinks that hadn't been turned or had died in the aftermath of the fall of humanity. Shizuka had gone as far as to asking Jim to talk to him about it and even asked both Soichiro and Yuriko to not make him go on anymore missions until he had gotten himself under control. But the night terrors weren't just something he could shut off with the flick of a switch, it was something that would take weeks or perhaps even months before this situation he classed it as would rectify itself.

But tonight, he wasn't sleeping with Shizuka and the girls in their apartment in the private rooms beneath the main terminal building. He instead found himself sleeping in a bunk bed in the barracks of the Green Troop hanger. He'd been sleeping here the last few nights since Shizuka had talked to the Takagi's about his 'situation' and after they had confronted him about it, he couldn't help being upset and feeling betrayed that his wife had gone behind his back about this. It was well known that the moment the mental well-being of an operator was brought into question he'd be taken off active duty until a shrink or medical professional deemed him fit enough to return to his unit.

And the reason why this was happening?

Because of what had happened five weeks earlier at the Tokonosu docks.

Sergeant Sakurambo 'Sakura' Nanahara had come to him and his unit with the request that they assist with his volunteer raider group along with his team to help secure a cache of goods they hoped to retrieve from the city docks. He had explained to him that he'd come across information to the whereabouts of tonnes upon tonnes of supplies were sitting in containers at the port for export from a guy that had used to work in one of the large mobile cranes that loaded large cargo ships with the same containers and told him the goods were located and that they should still be alright for consumption since most of what was being sent abroad was dry and tinned goods, all with long shelf lives.

After a few hours of preparing they had loaded up into several RHIB's and headed across the short expanse separating them from the world that the dead now claimed for themselves and their own little piece of salvation. They had been warned before hand though that the docks were prone to frequent visits from the same roaming horde of undead that seemed to return to the area often, the old worker thinking that the zombies were some of the same workers he'd once suffered alongside for long work hours with shit pay and being kept away from his family for too long at the same time.

He had been honest at least by saying that he honestly though the fall was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to him. He was with his family all the time now and they worked in the gardens together growing vegetables and fishing on small bats that went a few miles out to sea to avoid snagging any 'floaters' that could be lurking just beneath the surface.

When they reached the docks, Sakura had told the group he'd brought with him that they needed to remain together and not to go wandering off doing their own thing. With Green Troop and Sakura's own team providing security they had cleared a path through the few creatures that had been found wandering through the area towards the location where the containers were said to be located. Andrew remembered as he was walking through the area with Jim how it felt odd not having his shotgun with him but going back to using a classic suppressed MP5SD3 that he was more used to operating. He had offered to take over the role as the team's pointman with shotgun but ofcourse the Texan quickly coughed and spluttered and said there was no way he was taking away his beauty of a weapon. The look that Rika had given him after that though was priceless and she had harshly stated that she was his weapon and no shotgun was going to replace her.

They had found the containers soon after and the raiders had said amongst themselves about how easy it had all been so far and one guy from the group, an American survivor named Bradley, said that they probably didn't need all of the security as he used his bolt cutters to remove the lock keeping the container sealed. It wasn't until he opened the doors of the container that the overwhelming smell of rot and decay hit them all so much it made most of them double over, gagging and throwing up what meager scraps that had all eaten for breakfast.

When Bradley had stood back upright though he had stood shock still, his body had gone completely rigid, as a walking corpse stepped out of the container and threw itself at him before anybody had chance to react. Whatever had happened to the creature to be inside the steel box to begin with was beyond anybody's guess, but the skin that was just hanging off the creature was deathly grey with gangrenous patches covering its body with both arms severed at the shoulders and most of it's internal organs missing along with its lower jaw.

As Bradley lay on the ground screaming for help as the creature tore into his throat, ending him almost instantly, the group fractured and split off in different directions. Rika had quickly shot and killed the disgusting abomination with a burst from her own MP5SD3 submachine gun and just as quickly put a single round through Bradley's forehead to stop toe poor sod from reanimating as one of them. Sakura had watched his team quickly corral the others back together but he had spotted one girl, Sora, go off on her own through the maze of containers and before anybody had even a chance to realise what was happening, he was in hot pursuit. They had all called for him to come back but he either couldn't hear or was ignoring them.

Looking back at the others, Andrew had told his own team to fall back to the boats with Sakura's team and the raiders and keep their radios at he ready for a call just in case things went even more pear-shaped than they already had. Before they had left, Bradley's body was carried off between two of the raiders back towards the boats as Andrew took off after Sakura and the damsel in distress.

It wasn't surprising to him however how people got confused and lost when patrolling through places like this. He was barely moving between the first few containers in the area from where they had separated when he heard a shrill scream coming from a few hundred yards away. He figured it had to be the girl and quickly, despite him already knowing the likely outcome, he raced towards the source of the scream. It wasn't long until he found her…or what was left of the poor lass.

She was lying on the ground with several creatures on their knees surrounding her body and feasting on her body and tearing bloody great chunks out of her. At first, he thought she was still alive how he'd seen her legs kicking around but nearly chucked up when he saw one creature tear one of her legs off away from the joint with a spray of blood that coated the offending zombie's face and upper body.

He'd been tempted to chuck a few grenades amongst the filthy bastards, but when he heard the multitude of approaching footsteps he looked around and watched with horror as hundreds of creatures quickly started to descend on where Sora had fallen and had to turn and walk away as many more joined the feeding frenzy.

Then came the sound what any operator dreaded the most during missions into enemy territory when wanting to remain undetected; unsuppressed gunfire. Like the others, Sakura was armed with an MP5 for the sake of being able to swap magazines with the others in case anybody was running low of ammo, but it wasn't a suppressed variant. Unlike the Seals and Green Troop, Sakura's team were a police-style force and they only had access to a few SD models if they were needed, but then again, nobody had expected they would be running into a horde and a situation where they were having to rustle up survivors like scattered sheep that had been spooked by the prowling 'wolves'.

He soon heard more gunfire coming from somewhere to the north of the docks and figured that Sakura was trying to either lead the undead, or him, towards the large blue and yellow crane that was standing idly a few hundred meters away. It was a clear meet up point but figured that by now Sakura had more than just a few of the freaks chasing him by how hard he seemed to be burning through his ammo.

He had even dealt with a fair few of the pursuing freaks of his own. They had been drawn by Sakura's gunfire and he placed single shots where he could until one point where a couple nearly grabbed him, causing him to fall backwards into a containers and accidentally flip the submachine gun to full auto at the same time and empty the magazine into the two corpses in less than a second. He would normal berate himself for allowing something so stupid from happening, but right now he was just glad to be alive. But secretly, he did love watching these freaks wither under heavy gunfire from an automatic weapon.

He had quickly reloaded and headed out and started to go in the direction after Sakura, following the trail of fallen zombies and shell casing and even some empty magazines when he heard a single gunshot coming from somewhere nearby. What was most disturbing was there were no more gunshots that followed but the dragging footsteps of the dead and the groans and wails that followed.

He was dereddening what he was going to find and after moving through the few stacks of containers that were in his way, and killing a few more of the freaks that kept getting in his way, he came to a sudden stop and could only breath with shallow breaths as he found Sakura leaning slumped back against a container with his head hanging forward and a current of blood streaming from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He moved forward and crouched down in front of the man and tilted his head back and quickly wished he hadn't.

He found fresh bite wounds on his hands, wrists and arms and knew that if he didn't die here from the infection it would have been either back on the island or before they managed to rejoin with the teams.

As he was crouched before the man he had lived and fought besides on many occasions over the years he could hear many of the dead approaching. As he stood and readied his MP5 for action he looked back down at Sakura's body and realised that there was no way he would be able to make it out alive fighting off against the dead and carrying the man's body as well. It was a choice where there was only one clear option; he had to leave Sakura behind and run.

Now or never.

Hating himself as he crouched down beside the body he took Sakura's dog tags and the empty MP5A3 that sat on the ground beside him, loading it with one of his own magazines and brought the strap over his shoulder he waited until a creature appeared and when it did, he pulled out the large hunting knife that Kohta had made for him for his birthday a couple weeks before and ran the blade up through the creature's chin and the twelve-inch knife made contact with the brain stem. The creature fell to the ground and without wasting time he pulled the body over and placed it over Sakura so that hopefully the smell would ward off any other creatures from feeding on him.

"I'm sorry buddy," he'd whispered before readying himself to make the push to escape the docks.

* * *

He removed the kettle from the gas stove and poured the mess of black liquid, what was supposed to be coffee, into a cup and placed the kettle back down and with the blanket wrapped around himself he took his hot drink and walked through the dimly lit corridor down towards the entertainment room and planted himself down on the couch in front of the large plasma screen TV that stood proudly on the table beside a DVD player and a PlayStation games console and tried to enjoy the horrible drink instead of turned on the plasma to watch a movie.

Normally he would relax with watching an action movie or a western. Hell, after being stuck on the island for so long with Jim and Rika they had slowly introduced him to anime and he quickly found a few that he enjoyed, mainly all action shoot 'em up's but it was something he guessed.

Sipping the awful contents, he eventually relented and put the half-full cup down and decided that it wasn't worth torturing himself anymore with the god-awful drink. How the fuck Jim managed to drink this crap in place of real coffee or a decent cup of tea was something he guessed was something he still needed to learn about just how touch Texan's really were.

But while he had stop torturing his stomach his mind was still plagued with the memories of what happened at the Tokonosu docks.

After he had done his best to hide Sakura's body, he'd gone on a rampage. He hadn't been able to fight back and kill all of the creatures as he would had preferred, not having enough ammunition to deal with them all, he fought off any that got in his way and made his way along the coast after escaping the dockyards and tried to hail the team on the radio the whole time. He had been forced to stop at times to catch his breath and take a drink from his Camelbak or pop off a few rounds in frustration at the never-ending pursuing freaks that were on his trail.

Persistent bastards they surely were.

Eventually he had made contact with Rika over the comms and they had relayed him a position nearby where they would be able to pick him up. Using a flare gun, Jim gave him a marker to follow to their position on the river nearby where they had managed to get the boats through to pick him up. He had all but collapsed into the boat and Mikhail and Tajima pulled him aboard as Rika turned the RHIB around as Jim manned the mounted M240 machine gun and churned dozens of the undead into slurry.

As they had set course back to the island, he remembered how he had been forced to tell them team about how Sakura and the girl he had gone after were both dead after Rika kept hounding him for answers. The news hit the two former SAT snipers like a sledgehammer to the ribs, Rika had started crying and Tajima had remained quiet the whole journey back. Jim and Mikhail hadn't known the Sergeant as well as the two Japanese operators or Andrew had done but the death of a fellow trooper wasn't something to be overlooked. They all fought together and no matter what group or unit they served in; they were all brothers. They understood that he had been forced to leave Sakura behind but Andrew always had a sickening thought that they would blame him for not reaching him in time.

' _Just what the fuck was I meant to have done?!_ ' he thought angrily, ' _Let myself get bitten or eaten just so they wouldn't blame me?_ '

In the day that followed it didn't get any easier for them. There were constant meetings and debriefs about the failed operation and the council also wanted detailed facts and information about how Bradley, Sora and Sakura fell to the dead. The American's death was put down as unavoidable since both teams had been temporarily incapacitated due to the overwhelming smell that came from within the container and even though they had acted quickly in the aftermath once they recovered, he had died to blood loss and shock. Sora's, once explained in graphic detail was put down to her own negligence since again, the whole team had been present when Sakura had told them not to wander about or run off on their own.

Sakura's however was a pain to explain. Since Andrew was the only one that could account for what happened after he found Sora's body he had said that having to avoid an approaching horde of creatures and trying to find the Sergeant in the maze of containers at the same time was almost impossible since the sounds of gunfire were echoing off the metal boxes and making it impossible to track him the council members eventually put it down to an unfortunate case of overwhelming odds against them both.

Even though he was off the hook for what happened he could tell that Rika and Tajima were both holding some resentment against him still. Jim had taken him aside after they had left the meeting and said that it would just take time for her to come around and understand that he couldn't have done anything more.

But that was the problem right there and he had nearly exploded out of frustration because of it. Just what the fuck was there to understand exactly?! How the hell was he meant to fight off against an army of walking corpses and come out of it smelling of fucking roses with Sakura and Sora with him?!

In the end he'd had enough and after talking with both Soichiro and General Ihara, Green Troop was put on leave for the foreseeable future until they were able to rectify and sort out this issue with Rika and Tajima. They would continue training and assisting operations and maintenance on the island like the other units but there were no combat missions for the time being.

It was childish he knew, but when he stood before the two Japanese operators and told them both that they were being stood down until further notice Rika had looked as though she was ready to explode with Tajima also looking conflicted but had sighed and walked away knowing there was nothing he could do.

It was a few days later when the nightmares started and with Shizuka reporting him soon afterwards to speak to a specialist he'd just about had enough. Not only were the team on stand down orders but to be eventually pulled from a position of command didn't make him feel any better either.

For a brief moment he felt as though he was a child again. Everybody seemed to be having a problem with him as he was trying to do his best to please everybody, but it just wasn't enough for them. But like a fleeting thought it quickly passed. He was a grown man now with a wife and two daughters and he was more than capable of making his own decisions. Yes, he was a soldier and he had to prove himself on a daily basis still to be working with his team but there was one thing he could say with certainty; if people were blaming him for Sakura's death they could go and fucking drown out in the ocean.

He returned to the barracks and quickly changed out of his nightwear and into his black fatigues and kevlar combat boots and made sure to pick up his black duffel jacket before leaving the room again with his drink in hand. He made his way down towards the recreation area but walked past it and towards the sealed fenced area that was the troop's armoury. Walking inside and looking at all of the kit that was stacked up neatly in the racks and on the shelves, he looked around outside and made sure the area was clear.

Opening his personal locker, he started heaving out the contents and placing them on the table. The first thing he did was grab hold on the MP5SD3 that was sitting in the back corner of his locker and placed it on the table along with several magazines loaded with 9mm Subsonic ammunition. He gathered the rest of the gear he normally took with him when he ran ops in the city; night-vision goggles, combat dagger, compass, a single three-day ration pack, his pack with the affixed Camelback water system and extra batteries for both the NVG's and a flashlight. He also made sure to grab the emergency flares and beacon transmitter if the team needed extraction from the city if a mission had gone tits up.

But of all the items he gathered from his locker, he had to make sure to grab the most important piece that everybody working a mission out in Indian country was required to carry; a body bag. Every trooper in every until he could think of, including his own, were all required to carry their own normally as part of their standard equipment should they go down in the field. Some times he remembered when he had the unfortunate drudge of gathering up the remains of a fallen soldier and putting them in essentially what he would call a glorified binbag.

He knew that there was no way he'd be able to get away from the island today since there was a lot of activity going on with the Marines and JSDF patrolling the waters since there had been some activity from a horde wandering up and down the beach and many fearing that some of the creatures could end up floating towards the island. To get away he'd have to go alone and he would have to got at night when the patrols around the island were changing and he'd likely have to buy the trust and silence of at least one guard to leave and return without anybody noticing.

But as he found himself cleaning the MP5 he had to stop himself and actually think.

Why should he have to keep what he was planning a secret?

Why not tell the others about his plan on getting to the docks to retrieve Sakura's body?

"You think too much."

"Fucking Christ!" he yelped when the voice was spoken from beside him. Turning around to face the intruder he groaned out loud when he found Mikhail leaning against the entrance into the arsenal, "What are you doin' here to early?"

"I never left last night," the Russian operator yawned as he walked over and sat across from him and looked over all of the equipment that Andrew had laid out, "You have a mission?"

"Not a sanctioned one, no," Andrew admitted honestly before looking at him, "I'm going back to the city to retrieve Sergeant Nanahara's body."

"You mean 'we', right?"

"No matey," Andrew said as he started to reassemble the submachine gun and set it down on the table, "I'm going to do this by myself-"

"You sure about that?" the Russian then said with a cryptic voice, "Because if that's true then I may have to inform command that you were planning on running an unsanctioned mission without your team," he smiled and leaned back in his chair. He wasn't daft because he'd seen this type of tactic used against him multiple times, hell, even he'd done this truck a number of times and it always worked.

With everything he had stacked against him already with the damned so-called therapist that Shizuka was forcing on him and then possibly being made to have a leave of absence and having Mikhail report him as well would be the icing on the cake. It did honestly feel as though the world was against him right now. Even if it was people's way of trying to take the stress and weight off of his shoulders, he needed to do this and if not for getting Sakura back and giving the man a decent burial that he was entitled too, it was for himself as well.

"You're very stubborn, Andrew," Mikhail then began, "But I don't see why you feel the need to go this alone. I know that the last several weeks haven't been kind to you or your family. You didn't have to say anything, I notice these things just like anybody else."

"I've known you for years now, comrade," he said leaning over and patting him on the forearm, "Don't feel like you are alone. You have family, friends and a team here that will help you my friend. All you need to do, is ask," he signed as he leaned back, "Look, if you really need to do this alone, then I won't stop you. But just remember, going back there to the docks alone would be suicide. You would need to have at least one other person there watching your back while working through the docks to retrieve the body."

"Bodies," Andrew corrected him, "I want to try and retrieve Sora's remains as well. She may have been the one that caused the whole mess, but even she deserves to be buried with some dignity."

"When do you plan on leaving?" Mikhail asked as he inspected one of the MP5 magazines.

"I was thinking about heading out tomorrow evening during the shift change and returning before the next rotation. That way then hopefully nobody would have noticed me sneaking off and coming back before anybody else noticed."

"Then we should plan and act accordingly. We will need a boat, likely a RHIB for getting to the shore but we'll have to paddle in the last few hundred yards or so that we won't be heard by the infected. Suppressed weapons only but we shouldn't take too much equipment that we'll be weighted down. As for firepower," Mikhail paused looking at the 9mm Subsonic ammunition sitting beside the magazines, "We'll have to consider taking something with a little more kick."

As the Russian got to work with making a list of items the two operators would need for the mission, Andrew had to sit back and couldn't help but really appreciate what Mikhail was doing. Normally if it had been either Tajima or Rika, they would have likely turned him in and Jim would have tried to talk him out of it. Mikhail on the other hand was the one that was always willing to throw himself head first into the fire alongside him no matter what the mission was.

* * *

Using the paddles, the two operators struggled against the current as they to bring both themselves and the heavy RHIB up to the shoreline. They had stripped out everything that would have only weighed them down like the mounted M240 machine gun and the mount it sat in and most of the additional supplies that were normally stored aboard in case the crew aboard were stranded out at sea.

They had managed to leave the island without too much trouble once they had sought out Soichiro Takagi and explained to him that they needed to head into the city to check on one of their safehouses they had set up several months back and hadn't been to it since to make sure it was still secure. Whether or not that man believed them seemed irrelevant once he gave them permission to leave but told them it was strictly to be an in-and-out job and if there was any sign of trouble, they were to head back to the island immediately. They secured a RHIB from the vehicle storage hangers and the Marines on duty gave them a hand getting it into the water.

Afterwards Mikhail quickly brought the engine to life and soon they were shooting towards the city across the short expanse of water that separated them. As the Russian piloted the boat across the water, Andrew brought up his binos and started checking the waterfront for any signs of the wandering horde that frequented the area around the docks. Seeing that the area seemed clear they decided straight away to bring themselves ashore just north of their intended target zone. They had been caught out here before thinking it was clear when the infected seemed to be getting smarter by hiding in amongst the containers scattered around the yard and away from view of the water and anybody passing by.

It felt weird being back here after a couple of weeks and for body retrieval as well made him feel nervous and sick at the same time. He hoped that nothing had happened to Sakura's body while they'd been away and now that they were this close his first priority was making sure that wherever they landed was clear and that they both got home safe and sound and prey for mercy that Shizuka wouldn't make him sleep out in the dog house again.

As the boat came ashore and made sure it wouldn't slip away back into the sea, they quickly made sure that their surroundings were clear first by taking a knee in a defensive position on either side of the boat and bringing up their MP5's and scanned the area. They took a few minutes to become familiar with their surroundings before pulling their packs out of the boat and making them secure before they started heading off in the direction of the docks. They had three miles to cover and both men knew they could cover it in less than five minutes at jogging speed. But after the discussion they had before leaving they decided that they would move it at a steady pace and take their time while getting a feel for the land around them before stopping to check the dockyard once more from a distance before heading in.

* * *

Mikhail moved with precision. Each and every move he made to counter and destroy the enemy he had practised many times before both against living human targets but when he fought against the living dead, he needed to adapt to using new tactics. Moving quietly, using only suppressed weapons and make no noise whatsoever if he wanted to live another day.

But while he preferred the use of stealth and being discreet, he watched brutal savagery unfold as Andrew grabbed the few remaining strands of hair of a female zombie and yank it over violently into the hunting knife he held at the ready. The tip of the blade piercing through the ear and into the brain with a single swift movement before the body was tossed aside before grabbing another by the shoulder and ramming the blade through the rotten eye socket. The Russian followed his lead, following through the maze towards where they would, hopefully, find Sakura's body.

Between them both they managed to clear out nearly sixty zombies and disabled more than thirty. There were still plenty roaming the area but none of them were an immediate threat they needed to worry about. Mikhail could tell when he looked at his comrade that they were drawing close to where they were meant to be when he noticed how pensive he was.

"If you need, I can handle with recovering the body," Mikhail said calmly as they came to a stop nearby a pile of bodies that they hadn't had anything to do with but figured they were the remains of the creatures Andrew had killed over a month ago.

"Nah mate, this is something I need to do. It's what I should have done before," Andrew said as he checked the magazine for his weapon before replacing it and readied himself for what had to be done.

* * *

Recovering Sakura's remains wasn't easy for Andrew. When they arrived at the scene, he was both relived but also distraught. He was relieved for the fact that the job of covering his body with one of the dead creatures worked in camouflaging his body from the others. But he was upset that he had left it this long to come back for him and leaving him in such a way as well…

"Come on," Mikhail's voice broke through the dark thoughts in his head and he looked down to watch as Mikhail finished sealing the body bag before removing the disposable gloves he was wearing and tossed them away towards the bodies, "You can feel guilty and deal with all your issues later when we're out of here!"

He was right. He needed to get over the bullshit in his head right now because this sure as hell wasn't the time to be dwelling on it. Mikhail took the lead as Andrew followed close behind with Sakura's body over his shoulder. With his SIG in hand he moved at a steady pace behind the Russian operator and kept checking his rear and the flanks to make sure there weren't any lurkers hiding in the shadows.

Mikhail kept looking to Andrew for directions where to go next and he would only indicate with the muzzle of the suppressed pistol in his hand. He kept the muzzle up ready to fire the instant a threat made itself known and as they turned a corner, they were both confronted by several zombies. Between them both, Mikhail putting down four and Andrew three, they cleared the creatures lurking around…a body?

"I take it that's not Sora's body?" the Russian asked hopefully as he inspected the fresh corpse as Andrew carefully laid down Sakura and inspected the body up close. Crouching down and removing the goggles and black balaclava the mysterious corpse wore he found himself looking down at a woman who looked to be in her late 20's of Asian origin. But having lived on an island with Japanese survivors for a few years now both men knew this woman wasn't from the local region. Andrew had an inkling as to where she was from as he found a pistol still locked in a holster and discovered it to be a Chinese 5.8mm Norinco pistol.

"She's Chinese," Mikhail said as he crouched down on the opposite side of the body.

"Aside from the pistol and her ethnicity, what's to back it up?"

"This," Mikhail offered him a square fabric patch and found it showing the Chinese flag and a phrase saying ' **I Fight For China** ' in big bold lettering. Placing the patch down in one of his hands, he placed it over her and placed her other hand over top of it. He hadn't been too up to date on Chinese military customs before the fall, but whether she was a solider or maybe somebody that had taken the uniform he was always mindful to be respectful.

"What do we do with her?" the Russian asked as he stood back up and watched their surroundings.

Looking her over for a brief instant and the bite marks all over her body along with the self-inflicted gunshot wound…wait, how could she possible have a self-inflicted wound like that when her sidearm was still holstered?

He quickly searched her body and checked the right pant leg pouch and found it crammed with bloody documents with Mandarin markings and one was a map. He opened it up and after turning it around a few times he discovered it was a map of Tokonosu and several key points around the city were marked, circled and marked with red or black crosses in several sectors of the city.

Folding them up quickly and putting them into his own pouches, "We need to leave now! She's been dead less than a day and it wasn't her own doing," and moved to grab Sakura's body again. Mikhail was now on alert, scanning and snapping the muzzle of his weapon around so he was looking in several directions. With the body bag firmly secured on his shoulder he knew now there was now way they could recover Sora with a potentially serious threat lurking around in the area.

"We need to extract back to the boat. Get back to the island," and quickly the men took off back towards the north gate, double timing it and not looking back as the rain began to fall.

* * *

When they had left through the north gate, they had attracted the attention of multiple zombies. Mikhail had turned and fired several short bursts without killing any of them but his shots did land, hitting them in either their arms or legs with some in the chest and stomach areas. Some bursts he did fire did deliberately miss. The 9mm Full Metal Jacket round ricocheted with loud 'pings' and 'pangs' and attracted more creatures.

If anybody was watching they would think that the two men had a death wish, but this was deliberate. This was one such tactic the two had employed on several missions when dealing with possible rouge human elements that were against them. Draw out as many of the dead as they could to give them either something to use as camouflage or a distraction. Andrew hadn't needed for Mikhail to say anything since he was sure he'd seen them himself. Out the corner of his eye he was sure he'd seen huddled shapes hiding in the shadows, definitely not the undead from how they tried to hide themselves and all standing still and keeping quiet but always observing. He'd fired several rounds from his suppressed pistol and he put down two creatures in rapid succession but nothing came of it.

"Keep moving! We need to get back before those charges blow!" Andrew shouted in a fake American accent.

Another tactic they liked to use. When in a possible encounter with a group of survivors that could be hostile, they always spoke out loud about explosives and imminent detonations. This had always been a sure-fire way to get a reaction or to make them bolt for a quick escape.

Ofcourse though the bluff only worked if they hadn't been watched the whole time they had been in the yard. And if that was the case their cover was likely blown and they'd soon know about it if that was the case.

' _Don't get shot in the fucking arse! Don't get shot in the fucking arse! Don't get shot in the fucking arse!_ ' he kept repeating over and over in his head as he held on to the body bag. Thankfully the RHIB was just as they'd left it. Mikhail helped him load the body into the body and after an inspection of the hull of the boat and then the control panel to make sure it hadn't been tampered with, they pushed the boat back out onto the water and kicking off the embankment Andrew fell face first into the boat with a grunt.

* * *

From the shadows amongst several containers forty feet off the ground, a lone figure watched as a suppressed QBU-88 sniper rifle hung by their side. From around the yard he watched as the others started to emerge from their secluded positions and with their suppressed rifles and carbines started to clear out the remaining creatures that had been pursuing them and the two unknown soldiers that had arrived up north onboard an American RHIB vessel. From behind him he felt a large presence approach but he didn't flinch as the tall figure stood behind him and spoke softly in a familiar dialect.

"We've recovered Hanna's body, sir, but her documents weren't on her person and it appears she took her own life before the dead got to her. Chen said that he found her with her sidearm on her and this in her hands," and produced the same patch they all wore proudly on their uniforms.

"Understood. And the 'charges' the man was shouting about?" the sniper asked calmly but smirked at the same time.

"Nothing sir. It appears as though they were a bluff."

The sniper already knew this but wanted to make sure. They had already lost three operators this month alone since arriving in Japan and he couldn't take the risk of losing any more. His men were family to him and when the pack lost a member the all sought vengeance.

"Why did we allow the men to leave, Sir? Clearly they knew of our presence."

"They weren't a threat to us, just like how we weren't to them. They aren't our targets, at least for now," he replied a moment later as he looked to the sky as the rain continued it's downpour and brought up his rifle and worked the bolt, "Let's go. We need to be out of this area in case they send a larger force to check this area when they return to their base."

* * *

As Mikhail piloted the boat back across the water towards the island Andrew kept a lookout on their rear towards the docks as they quickly began to gradually fade away, "I don't think anybody's coming after us."

"Should damn well hope not. I've got one mag left and we've no protection against anybody packing anything heavier!" Mikhail had to shout back as the boat bounced on the choppy water.

"I'll keep us covered! Let's just get back without incident and we'll be fine!"

"Speak for yourself!" Mikhail had to chuckle, "If you wife finds out about this, she's going to make you spend the rest of the month sleeping in the bunkroom!" he laughed.

"Worrying about my sleeping arrangements for the foreseeable future ain't my concern right now," he said as he looked down to Sakura and nodded to himself before reaching for the documents he'd recovered off the dead Chinese soldier, "We need to give these to the lads in intelligence and see if they can get 'em translated. We need to know why there was a Chinese soldier here in Japan."

"Possibly coming here seeking refuge?"

"In the gear she was wearing matey, I doubt it," he replied, "It was too new and what was left of her she looked as though she'd been eating well and aside from blood, no dirt or grime on her at all."

"Very observant," Mikhail replied coyly under his breath.

"Cunt," Andrew growled.

* * *

There was a mix of Marines and JSDF awaiting their return as Mikhail brought the RHIB around and pulled up to the jetty they had departed from just hours earlier. With them they carried a pair of stretchers, obviously they had been expecting the retrieval of two bodies not one, and they carefully assisted with removing Sakura from the boat and laid the body bag down before carrying the body off towards the nearby hanger where Sakura's team had been told to wait for them the night before. It wouldn't take long before word got to the council about their false operation and no doubt Soichiro himself would be furious with the deception but they would take it all in stride as they had done many times before.

However, Andrew couldn't help but feel that the moment they informed them of there being Chinese Special Forces operating in Tokonosu he figured they'd soon turn their attention to that instead. And taking out the large clump of papers and maps he'd taken from the soldier they'd get some up to date intelligence about several costal cities, including their own.

But as the pair entered their hanger and found the other members of the team waiting for them Andrew had wished in the moment, he was back in the middle of the city instead of getting ready for the bollocking they were about to receive.

* * *

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Rika was the first to break the silence.

Neither of the men said anything as they started to remove their wet gear and stow their weapons after unloading them, making sure to clean them down later.

"Completing a promise that I'd made to a friend," he said looking at Rika and tilted to his head towards the hanger where they could see Sakura's team standing outside with a group of peace officers and several military personnel, "We brought Sakura home."

"Just the two of you though Andy?" Jim asked him, "I know you thought it was something you had to do buddy, but you know we'd have come with you to help. What if you had encountered a horde of those things like before?"

"Either ran for the sea as quickly as my legs would let me or top myself," he snorted, "What do you want me to say, eh? That we should have just left Sakura there to rot or eventually become food for those fucking abominations or we should have just sat around here for longer sitting on our hands doing fuck-all?!" he barked back at them.

"If you had just talked about it then we would have gone together as a team! Not having you and Mikhail go alone facing the unknown and likely getting killed yourselves!" Rika shouted at him.

"Oh really?" he chuckled snidely, "From what I've heard you've tried to get me fucking sectioned and having my command stripped from me. And the rest of ya weren't exactly gonna help me out either!" he then spat back with pure venom as he then reached into the large pocket on his pant leg he retrieved the papers and maps he'd recovered from the dead Chinese soldier, "And likely if you'd had succeeded we wouldn't have found these!" and threw them on the table. He didn't want to be around the others for the time being, he was tired, upset and on the verge of wanting to punch somebody. He quickly stripped out of the wet clothes as he stood by his locker and just as quickly pulled on some fresh dry clothes that were waiting for him. Mikhail followed after him a moment later and changed out of his own uniform and into clean fatigues but he didn't say a word as he quietly carried out his task.

"Think I over did it a bit back there?" he asked Mikhail after another minute at a point he wasn't as pissed as he had been a few minutes before.

"We'll see in due time I suppose," the Russian said as he pulled on his desert tanned boots, "But…, I can see from their point of view that we should have told them what we had intended to do."

With a heavy sigh Andrew turned and shut his locker to and sat down on the bench across from it, "I know," he revealed as he ran his hands through his hair, "I just, fuck," he groaned, "I just wanted to do this without there being any fucking drama about it and everybody questioning my sanity!" he tried to explain, "Why does everything have to be such a god damned drama!"

Times like this he would have taken his frustrations out on a punching bag or before he would have sought out a bottle of something strong. He knew there were a few lads that were brewing some alcohol on the island still but it was mainly for medical purposes only, so no chance of that.

"Come on," Mikhail broke through the silence, "They'll be serving breakfast soon. We should go get something to eat."

* * *

Breakfast had been a somewhat uplifting. The cooks were serving fresh scrambled eggs on toast with fresh veggies from the gardens and everything was perfectly seasoned and they had also set out a selection of tea and coffee for the people to choose from. For the first time neither of the operators abused the use of the military status to jump the cue and instead waited in line to get their trays and as soon as they got their food and drinks moved through the room and instead of sitting at the tables they walked over towards the large windows that overlooked the runways and sat on the floor.

"Must be something going on for them to be serving us food this good. Can't remember the las time we had fresh eggs," the Russian smiled as he spooned a mouthful of eggs and fresh vegetables into his mouth and groaned happily at the taste, "This is so good."

"Good grief," Andrew chuckled as he watched the older man wiggle where he sat as he munched his food slowly as he ate his own and nodded, "Aye, not bad. Shame there ain't any bacon but I'm not complaining," and chewed his toast with vigor.

"I'm just glad to see that the food has lifted your spirits," Mikhail said softly, "And you are right, about what you said before. About the drama," and he chewed on some green beans before saying, "Why don't you take a break?" and had to hold up a hand when he saw Andrew react with a glare, "Not like what they were saying. I mean, have a couple weeks away from the field, take some time and be with your family."

"What about the others? There'll be missions coming in all the time now we've gotten this new intel."

"There are the Seals, the Japanese Rangers and the Special Forces Group along with many other operators as well as the regular forces that can take over for us in the meantime. I think we're all due a break anyway or at least some down time."

"That you are," came another voice adding into their conversation. Startled, both men looked around and saw General Ihara standing a few feet away with a cup of coffee in his hand, "The council's heard about the little 'detour' you were both forced to make. Knew it was bad of us not to say we'd seen an increase of undead activity in the city recently. Just glad to know you used your initiative and went through the docks instead."

They both looked at each other and then back to the General as he added, "I'll be talking with the other members of your team in the hour. You're all on official stand down orders now until further notice. We're going to need your team well rested for what's next."

Neither of them knew how to react until Isoroku knelt down, "And good work with bringing Sakura back as well. We've tried to send a team for over a month but after the last raid the council wasn't willing to send anybody else out after him. I'll speak with the others when they arrive back here shortly."

As they watched the man stand and walk away as he looked to the runway and sipped his coffee Andrew and Mikhail once again looked at each other and then to the island and only then did Mikhail break the silence.

"What just happened?"

"Right now lad, I'm worried about what he said about what was to come next."

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

Hey folks, best to begin with the obvious. I'm really sorry with the lack of updates over the last few months guys. Since the summer began here the workload has nearly tripled and with several people leaving the company i work for as well as having to help cover other stores because of stress and illness and injuries i've not had much time to myself to write much of anything.

Originally this chapter was going to tell a different story, one much different to the one you've just read. But all the same, the twisted events that unfolded in this chapter (Unfortunately) did need to happen for the story to evolve much later. I'm sure many of the more hardcore fans of FiremanJim's HOTD 'Last Alarm' story know that i plan on eventually making a sequel to this one that'll be an even more sick and twisted story than this one will be and one that may require me to make an AO3 account due to the nature of the story and what occurs within.

That is ofcourse unless people who'll this story don't report me.

Many of you that have read this chapter may feel as though the ending doesn't provide you with many answers about what happened afterwards. But fear not, in the coming chapter they'll be a full explanation about what happens and we'll all get a chance to see the group operating not only as a full team again, but in an entirely different continent outside of Asia.

Anyway, if you liked the chapter or had anything you'd like to say you're all more than welcome to leave a review or send me a PM if you feel more comfortable doing that. Until next time people, you all take care of yourselves and stay safe and see you in the next chapter!


	5. ARC II Chapter IV: Trade

…

 _ **(Author's notes at bottom)**_

Last Alarm:

The Okinawa Offensive

Chapter 4

 _Tokonosu Naval Base_

 _Tokonosu Prefecture, Japan_

If there was one thing Andrew hated most of all in this desolate world, it was flying in a helicopter. But not just any helicopter, but a Japanese Ground Self-Defence Forces Kawasaki CH-47J twin-propped helicopter. For a former British Special Air Service trooper, Chinook helicopters were as the yanks would say 'Bad Juju' seeing as nearly every American Navy Seal had that had flown aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk would joke about "Who here's been in a Blackhawk crash?" to which nearly the hand of every operator would rise. Ever since the American CH-47 he'd been aboard during the final evacuation of Tokonosu nearly five years ago had gone down he hated being aboard them.

Looking around in the cabin where he and nearly a dozen other soldiers were preparing for an immediate departure from the helicopter the moment it touched down on the ground and the ramp opened all twenty-eight men and women that made up the Task Force would exit the heli while the propellers were still at full power above their heads as they set-up a defensive perimeter. Peering off down the lone at the troopers that lined both sides of the compartment, all decked out in a mixture of ' _Type III Camouflage_ ' and ' _JGSDF Desert Camouflage_ ' fatigues and sporting Type 89 assault rifles, he hoped that they wouldn't require much more of this constant training for what the council had planned for two weeks from today.

* * *

 _Three months earlier…_

" _Pardon me, sir," Andrew began as he stood side-by-side with Mikhail in the council chambers, "But, would you mind repeating that?"_

 _Prime Minister Souichiro Takagi sat beside his wife at the head of the large table as several other key members that made up the council sat along the sides in silence as the older man smiled._

" _Recently, we have been in contact with a group in the United States of America. Our satellites picked up communications being transmitted from a location somewhere in Southern Texas between a group of U-S Special Forces that were on a mission and their central command," he briefly paused to take a sip of water._

" _We continued to listen in on their communications and after a while we were sure that everything seemed legitimate, we made contact."_

 _The two Green Troop operators briefly looked at each other, giving each other knowing looks before Mikhail asked, "And what happened afterwards, sir?"_

" _Once we established that they were a legitimate military force, still fighting to preserve the lives of their citizens just the same as our own forces, I spoke directly with several key members of their local government."_

' _Bloody hell, that was quick' Andrew thought without showing his concern to the matter. Normally it would take days or even weeks before enough trust was made between any large groups that any political figure was willing to talk to the other. He knew well enough about that after fighting in several different counties between the Middle East, Africa and South America for nearly two decades and now in and around Japan against multiple hostile groups that still continued to operate in country's surrounding them using military forces that were still holding out against the undead scourge that even now, despite everything that had happened over the last few years, politicians were still a corrupt bunch of bastards._

" _I see that you have doubts about this, Andrew-San," Souichiro chuckled quickly gaining the mans attention, "I do understand that you'll doubts about us making communication with a large group out of the blue like this, but I assure you, at this point we have only spoken, nothing more."_

' _And why don't I believe that?' he nearly rolled his good eye._

" _However," Souichiro said suddenly._

' _Here we go…'_

" _During our talks we had discussed about our situations regarding our supplies. Ourselves with food and ammunition dwindling and they said about lacking medicine…"_

' _Here it comes…'_

" _They requested if it was possible if we could meet to discuss a possible trade deal."_

' _And there's the kicker sent flying directly in to the bollocks.'_

 _After a couple seconds of silence where it was clear that either Andrew or Mikhail was meant to give a response it was Yuriko that broke the brief moment of awkward silence, "As we had expected, my dear, they aren't clearly going to go for that."_

 _Souichiro looked to the two soldiers who stood calmly before the table of council members wit their eyes fixed directly on him and nothing else. He smiled, thankful that they too shared his own shared the same thoughts of how things had seemed to be too good to be true._

" _The man I spoke to said about how he was willing to trade us weapons, munitions and supplies of food and other essential supplies we need in return for medical supplies."_

" _For medical supplies, sir, that seems an awful lot of firepower they're willing to give us. Have they asked for anything specific?"_

" _Mainly medicines but also they have requested dialysis equipment, radiography and radiology equipment and several other items they deemed important and necessary for their hospital to keep running and treat the people of the city in which they occupy."_

" _And what city would that be, Sir?"_

 _The room was silent for a brief moment and Andrew couldn't help but think it was for dramatic effect._

" _San Antonio."_

* * *

"No more…I'm done," Jim drawled as he dropped down on the old couch in the hanger's recreational area and sighed heavily. He was still wearing all of his gear from the five practice runs they had spent most of the day running before their imminent departure aboard the USS George Washington to head for the United States…or what remained of it. They were all tired from the multiple drills they and a dozen other teams had been running through over the last several weeks. So, looking down at his friend as he appeared on the verge of falling asleep on the couch, he was tempted to kick him and tell him to shift over so he could get a seat too.

Rika however beat him to it but instead of asking him to budge over she just dropped down on his legs, quickly forcing the Texan to move his legs so now they looked like an awkward tangle of limbs and gear as she leaned her head back and quickly fell asleep with her husband's legs on her lap.

"Now that's just…uhh," Tajima couldn't even finish a full sentence as he collapsed into one of the few armchairs they had scattered around the room facing towards the large wall-mounted plasma screen and like the married couple that were now both snoring their heads off, fell asleep almost instantly but Tajima seemed to have had taken the time and thought to remove his gear first.

He wasn't surprised by how easily the team was feeling run down. It wasn't just because of the multiple exercises and the other big factor being the lack of good food despite the MRE's they'd been eating being packed with protein and vitamins they needed for a…somewhat healthy intake, but it was the lack of exercise. When the team had been put into official stand down by order of General Ihara they had fallen into a rut. But it was also a time where the team had nearly splintered because of his doing.

Just like with Sakura, it was another one of his fuck up's he'd needed to clean up.

They had performed their daily exercises, kept themselves fit and able and had routine medical check-ups just like all the other survivors on the island. But it had been their lack of missions taking them out and fighting the fight against the dead and those that sought to destroy their way of life because they seeked to have a world filled with anarchy, it just wasn't enough.

But then again, looking at the team and how they looked not only tired but hurting as well he had to remember that none of them were exactly 'spring chickens' anymore. Himself especially. He was nearing his 40's and despite what people used to say that ' _life begins at forty_ ', he felt bloody ancient.

He turned around towards the door leading to the corridor where across in the other room, the team's new armoury and equipment storage room, he saw Mikhail removing his gear and storing his weapons on the racks and magazines and grenades in the cabinets. Normally for drills they wouldn't have carried gear like this but in today's modern world they never knew when a simply aerial surveillance could turn into a hot extraction by landing on a deserted highway to pick up a team of their fellow operators that were about to be consumed by a sea of the undead.

He smirked at the memory of them saving Seal Team Three's arses from the fire. They had been in country several days seeking out a survivor colony they had heard rumour about from one of the mainland settlements and when they had gotten close to where they had been told where to find it they had been surprised to find one of the largest hordes of undead swarming through a valley. And it took only a few to notice them to redirect nearly several hundred thousand creatures and turn it into a run that could put the infamous 'Mogadishu Mile' to shame.

They had been aboard a C-130 at the time dropping off pallets of supplies to the same communities they were aligned with when the call came through for an immediate pick-up. It had taken some doing, as it would have been suicide to try and land the plane directly in the center of Haneda airport to pick them up, but they managed to find themselves a secluded section of highway that was clear of vehicles and the dead and it had taken expert piloting skills, and several pairs of soiled briefs, to land, pick up the team and take off again in the space of a few minutes to avoid being swarmed themselves.

Walking across to stand beside Mikhail as he removed the magazine from his weapon and made sure it was clear before closing the dust cover and slotting the M4 back amongst the line of carbines and rifles he noticed how the trooper was probably just as tired as the others but still had enough energy to put his kit away.

"You look like you're ready for a kip," he chuckled and yawned loudly just moments later himself, "Jesus, I need a coffee."

"Good luck with that," Mikhail said as he leaned against the rifle racks and tried rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "I think Jim had the last of it the other day."

"Bollocks," he chuffed, "Just as well then I guess. Tea?" he asked hopefully.

But all he got was a shake of the head and he released another sad chuckle, "Dammit. Too bad it's not as simple as popping down to the corner shop anymore."

"Back in Moscow," Mikhail began with a smile as he started to remember his home country, "There was this market I would go to on a Sunday morning if I was off duty, and they had some of the best coffee and sweet pastries. It was nice, sitting at a table and reading the newspaper," he trailed off at the memory, "I hate to think what it looks like now."

"One day chap," Andrew said after a moment, "One day, things will change. We'll take back what was lost, and we'll rebuild it all."

The Russian smirked at that comment, "You making a promise there, comrade?"

"I'll keep fighting for a world where one day my kids will be able to walk through the fields, feel the grass beneath their feet and be able to live a life without having to worry about marauders, the undead or that fucking disease."

"I want them to live free to do what they want. I will always want what's best for them, my wife and all of you," he said as he leaned back against the lockers, "In the end, I don't care what it'll end up costing me. A piece of my mind, my soul, whatever it takes, I'll do whatever I possibly can to make the world a better place."

"There's an old saying that a friend of mine once said," Andrew continued, "He used to say 'We get dirty, so the world stays clean' and i have lived by those words ever since i heard them."

"Who was he?"

"His name's Price."

* * *

"How many vehicles are we taking with us?" Jim asked Tajima and Mikhail as the trio stood in the hanger's vehicle depot, going over a manifest and looking at the vehicles they had at their disposal.

"We'll want four vehicles. Two Humvee's and two off-roaders. Probably those dirt bikes," Tajima said pointing towards the high-performance Honda dirt bikes that sitting on a trailer in the corner, "There's a chance we'll be going off road while we're in America and Rika-San said it was best to make sure we have some selection."

"Okay. What about the Humvee's? How are they being loaded up?"

"We're going to check their engines and electrical systems first before we do anything on them. But if they both pass the check list, we'll get them fitted out with armour-plating and heavy weapons. We've no idea what we'll be landing ourselves in when we arrive so Andrew-San said to load up with as much fifty-cal as we can carry and plenty of extra's."

* * *

"So, what do you think we'll be needing then?" Rika asked as she stood in the center of the armoury and looked over the large selection of weaponry they had. It was much different from the old cage they had that used to sit in the middle of the hanger floor beside their vehicles but at least this way it was all kept secure.

Looking over the line of carbines on the racks beside the M16 and Type 89 assault rifles they kept, Andrew began picking up a couple of M4's and laid them down on the table in the middle of the room before grabbing the MK48 machine gun that Rika preferred to carry when they knew they would need the additional heavy firepower.

"I think these, but add some U-B-G-L's to the carbines and if we all make sure to carry our larger packs with us, we'll each be able to carry extra ammo for the machine gun and a spare barrel too. I wanna make sure we take the maximum firepower we can carry for weight."

"Not the Barrett or Jimu's shotgun?" she cooed while using her cute little duck face.

"Don't do that," Andrew shuddered at her impression, "Fact is we don't have enough shotgun shells left for him to constantly run that thing anymore and what fifty-cal we've got left's going in the truck's we're taking with us for security."

"Well we need to take at least two long guns," and looked at the few sniper rifles they had and sighed as she lovingly stroked her Barrett, "What do you think?"

"What I think is you need to stop stroking that thing like it's ya kid and look for something that'll work," he chuckled at her playful pout, "We've got a couple of semi-auto three-oh-eight's so best to have a look at them before anything else."

"And what about that?" she asked and nodded towards a large black case that sat in the corner of the room. It was a 'special project' he'd been working on over the last few months after heading back to the mainland for materials he said he'd needed to complete it, "Are we taking that with us? We finally get to see it in action?"

"Yeah," he said after a minute of pondering, "Load it up with the rest of our gear and make sure to bring along it's 'sister package' as well."

* * *

Splitting the team into two groups, Andrew and Mikhail in one Humvee and Jim with Rika and Tajima in the other, they ran the vehicles up and down the runways as fast and as hard as they could. It had been too long since any of them had driven a vehicle and they needed to get used to them again. But now they were running them with the additional weight of the plating and weapons mounted on them to make sure they ran without being dragged down by it all.

Mikhail nearly spun their vehicle out twice, causing Andrew who'd been forced to hang onto the Browning machine gun for dear life shouted a flurry of expletives in his native Britannia accent would have made anybody else's ears bleed, but otherwise the vehicles seemed to be running well and since neither Tajima or Jim could find any faults with the vehicles they would be loaded aboard the Chinook helicopters later that evening along with their bikes after they were given one last inspection before they were flown out to the USS George Washington.

* * *

"Daddy," Akane began as the little girl sat on her mother and fathers' bed as she watched her daddy crouching in their bedroom and packing up a large rucksack with clothes and other accessories, "Are you going away for a long time?"

"Ofcourse not sweetheart. It'll only be for a couple of weeks, maybe a month at most and I'll be home again," he told her as he folded up some shirts and placed them into his ruck.

"Oh," she sighed and leaned forward so she could now see into his pack, "Is momma going with you?"

He didn't have the heart to tell her yet but he needed to keep up appearances, "No sweetie. She'll be hear taking care of you both. She'll be taking time off work to make sure you're both looked after properly and you'll be spending plenty of time with Rei and Saya."

"What about Saeko-Senpai and Oyuki-Kun? Are they staying here too?" she asked, worried that her favourite aunt would be leaving her behind as well.

"Don't worry sweet-pea," her daddy paused to look at her, "It'll be a security job and that means they'll be very little time for playing around."

"Tell you what," he then added after a minute after seeing her so glum, "Give me another five minutes to finish here, and then we'll watch anime for the rest of the evening. How's that sound?"

"With cookies?" she asked suddenly with hope and a sparkle in her eye.

"I'll have to tear through the M-R-E's to find some, along with the peanut-butter M&M's you'll want, no doubt?" he smirked at her giggle.

"Okay daddy!"

* * *

"So?"

"So what?"

"You've not told her yet, have you?" Jim smirked as the Texan stood beside him as they both finished off what was left of the decaf coffee, neither of them really all that eager to finish their brew's.

"Well, it was going to be a surprise holiday so telling them would spoil it for them."

"Yeah, but you do know we're due to board the helicopters in just over an hour from now, right?"

"And they'll be ready. Yuriko's being helping Shizuka pack up some clothes for them this afternoon while we were doing some last-minute training and Saeko's had to try and keep Oyuki quiet from spilling the beans to both Alice and Akane," he chuckled before retching at the taste of the disgusting mixture and tossed it away onto the gravel beneath his boots.

"A few years ago-" Jim began but was quickly cut off.

"If you're telling me you used to drink this shite, I can't believe you used to be a fireman before joining up with me and a bunch of mercs. What? You gonna tell me you honestly like this crap?"

"Nah," Jim quickly said and tossed his own away, "It sucks. And it still does now, just like it did back then."

"Thank god that's one thing we can agree on that neither of us miss about the old world."

As the two settled down and watched the multiple trucks rolling towards the docks where numerous vessels were beginning to bring the ship's crew aboard along with the US Marines and Seal Team's Two and Three, they watched another two trucks rolling across the runway loaded up with JSDF Rangers.

"How you feeling though lad?"

"About going home?" Jim replied and he looked unsure about how to answer, "It's my home. Where I lived, before any of this happened."

"You know what I mean," Andrew said, "I get that you're worried buddy about meeting your folks again."

"What was it like for you, when you went back home to England?"

Andrew sighed heavily at the memories about his brief return to his home country a few years ago back when Red Troop had accompanied a gathering of European ships loaded up with numerous people from several different EU countries heading for England. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you would look at it, the United Kingdom had shut it's borders to air traffic, boats and ferries and even the channel tunnel from England to France had been closed due to a terrorist attack in central London when a terror cell had used multiple suicide bombers, a VBIED and multiple gunmen to kill hundreds before CTSFO (Counter-Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers) and a locally stationed SAS QRF team were able to put them all down.

But not before one of the sick bastards put a suicide vest on a hostage and blew the poor bastard up, and more would have been killed in the same explosion if one of the SAS troopers hadn't pushed the poor sod away before the vest blew.

That attack ' _luckily_ ' occurred just three days before the whole world went tits up and with the boarders shut down and any aircraft trying to exit or enter the country was shot down without any warning and any boats trying to cross the channel were sunk by the Royal Navy.

He remembered how during the outbreak he had been running around Tokonosu with Rika, Tajima and Mikhail back before they found Jim and the teens from the high school but several other survivors as well.

One of them being his nephew, Ray. He couldn't believe that his nephew had taken part of an exchange student program and he had ended up in Tokyo but had come to Tokonosu for a week with some friends he'd made during his stay. When they had gotten him back home after nearly a year, he still remembered now how his brother and sister-in-law's from Sarah's and Ana's side of the family had come rushing out of their old house when they had seen them arrive outside in the old Land Rover he'd 'acquired' from a car showroom dealing used motors.

He still thought about how the grieving mother and father, both who thought they'd lost a niece as well as sister, got a second chance, something that was uncommonly rare in this terrifying new world and seeing him being the man that had brought him home they had praised him and couldn't stop thanking him.

"Once thing's had been dealt with, it wasn't so bad."

"You miss either of your parents, sister or brother-in-law you told me about?"

"Them?" he scoffed, "Not one fucking bit."

"Look," Andrew tried again after a minute, "If you don't wanna go, or don't want to see the folks if that's what's got you worried-"

"I'm going, Andy. I'm going," Jim butted in, "I want to see my family again."

"Then what's got you looking so spooked?"

"I'm worried they may not want to see me."

* * *

Helicopters and several LCAC's spent the hour transporting supplies from the carrier to the island while other vessels brought the ships detachment of sailors, Marines and their special forces contingent along with the people that had been trained over the years to handle the ships systems and mechanics. Like anything like the USS George Washington, she and many other vessels that made up the fleet that was anchored around the island needed maintenance so often a lot of people had honestly considered scuttling her after stripping her of everything they could use for the other vessels.

But for the time being, she would continue to serve until such a time where she would go down to either a mechanical issue that could no longer be fixed since the crews at the ship builders yards were all out to lunch for the next hundred years or a super-typhoon took her down to meet her fate in Davey Jones' locker.

But as the islands' main military forces were preparing for their departure Andrew was walking across the tarmac towards one of the helicopters that would be ferrying himself, his family along with Jim, Rika, Saeko and Oyuki to the carrier. Several other helicopters, mainly Huey's, were bringing aboard the council members that would be partaking in the first official meeting between the survivors of Tokonosu and San Antonio.

And it was one that many were hoping that would begin to turn the tide with the war against the dead.

* * *

"I can't believe this you guys!" Akane shrieked with excitement as she was helped down from the rickety old helicopter onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. Akane had been driven about in a Humvee before around the airfield and she had even been aboard one of the LCAC's when the Marines commandeered one to go fishing during the summer. But this marked the first time she had ever been aboard a helicopter as well as an aircraft carrier.

"This is so awesome!"

"I know, right?!" Oyuki squealed and Shizuka couldn't help but sigh as Saeko stood beside the nurse and gently laid a hand on her shoulder as she smiled, "Oji-San gave her cookies and M&M's again, didn't he?" she asked knowingly and chuckled when all Shizuka could do was nod.

"Well I'm sure this will be an adventure," Shizuka commented as they headed towards the bulkhead on the conning tower of the large vessel as her husband followed close behind with their packs, both on his back and in hand as the girls carried their own.

"Yeah well, once we're shown where we're sleeping hopefully, they'll settle down."

* * *

It had only been decided just a few days ago by the council that a select number of people would be allowed to bring their families along for the journey on their voyage to America. The only reason how Andrew and Jim had managed to bring along their families was because Shizuka would be spending time with a number of doctors and nurses at the hospital in the city they were visiting and they couldn't leave their girls behind all on their own. And Jim and Rika, both being elite force felt happier bringing their adopted daughter along with them and like Alice and Akane, there was no way in hell Saeko was going to leave Oyuki behind while she was several thousand miles away on the other side of the world.

Several council members, the Takagi's included, were also bringing along their families. And what with Saya and Hirano already being a couple they gave him a leave of absence from his duties on the island teaching some of his fellow JSDF counterparts about sniping. He had continued to carry Rika's old Armalite AR-10 rifle he'd taken from her gun safe on the second night of the outbreak and had taken good care of the thing ever since. The same applied with Miyamoto's, since Rei's parents both being members of the council's civilian department, they had said they had trusted their daughter to stay behind with Takashi, just as long as there was no 'hanky-panky' during their absence.

It had only been when Rika had made a dirty comment about how she'd seen the teens being all over each other just a few days ago when they thought nobody was about that made them decide right there and then she was coming along with them. It had only been because of Rei that Takashi was allowed to come as well, but during his time in America both he and Hirano would be attached to Green Troop.

The trip itself was expected to take somewhere between ten-to-fourteen days to reach the southern coastline of Texas since it would mean they would be travelling across the Pacific but instead of taking the Panama cannel to reach their destination they would be sailing all the way south around Peru, Chile, Argentine and the rest of South America before anchoring in the Gulf of Mexico.

The decision about bypassing Panama had been brought into question many times as it would be the most logical path to take. That was until the captain of the George Washington had brought up the facts that the cannel itself hadn't likely be dredged in years, meaning there was no way to tell if the hulls of the ships wouldn't get stuck in whatever could be sitting beneath the murky waters. And what intelligence they'd received from the governors in San Antonio was that there were mass concentrations of undead activity coming up from all over the southern continent but they also had to worry about the possibility of rebel forces that were still active in the jungles wielding RPG's and heavy machine guns that they wouldn't hesitate to turn on the vessels just for the sake of a few laughs before skittering off back into the dense jungles for cover.

So, because of the long trip came up the worries about fuel. Since the carrier was nuclear powered, she would be able to sail the sea's for at least another two decades before she would need to be refuelled. But since it took several teams of highly skilled engineers and personnel to refuel the ship, not to mention the four-year waiting period for it to happen, so when the George Washington was outta gas she'd be useless.

That was when the discussion came up about them refuelling in Hawaii and possibly the Falkland Islands. Straight away the navy men struck off the chances of getting fuel from Hawaii since they had lost all communication with the bases there just months after the fall and central command located in a base in the center of the islands had also gone dark, meaning that the few men and women that held the responsibilities of taking care of the Navy were likely shambling around the underground complex in the dark, hungrily yearning for the first unlucky bastard to open the blast doors to be their first meal since turning.

During their absence the JGSDF and JASDF were to take charge with island security and with a large force of Marines and volunteer forces that had been trained over the years would also assist with keeping the people safe until their return. Several ships with heavy weapons would remain behind to protect them against the, unlikely, threat of an attack by any hostile forces with plans already put into motion for their protection over the next several weeks.

* * *

"I've never been to South America before," Shizuka said quietly as she snuggled closely with her husband in their bunk as the girls sleeping in their shared bunk beneath them, "What's it like?"

"Columbia was hot, and I mean roasting hot. I'll never forget that jungle I was first sent into…god, so many years ago now."

"And what about the Falklands? You've been there before too, right?"

"Only once. And let me tell you duck, I hated it. Every minute of it while I was there it was bloody awful. If it wasn't the cold that got to you it was the lack of anything to do and the crap food," he said but then paused, "Honestly, thinking about it now I have to wonder it looks like now."

"You think there'll be anybody there?"

"Maybe," he said. There was no way to tell for sure if there were any survivors still occupying the islands. With no supplies being brought in on a regular basis and he remembered most of the livestock that existed on the islands were sheep he couldn't see anybody wanting to remain behind. Especially not when winter came and what with several nuclear weapons being detonated in the southern hemisphere just a few years ago he dreaded to think what it was like now.

"Let's just hope that we don't stick around there for too long if we need fuel."

"You don't like it there, do you?"

Andrew looked down at her and all she could see with the emotions tormenting him.

"My old man fought there, back in eighty-two against the Argentinians. I was only two years old at the time so I don't remember much about him being away. But when I was growing up, I always remember how he would say that I would never compare to anything like him and those lads that fought there."

Shizuka was now leaning on her elbow and looking down at her husband and listened but she kept their fingers interlocked to offer him a form of comfort. It was rare for him to open up to her about things from his childhood so she would listen, wait until he was finished and only then she would speak.

"He lost a lot of friends there, all mates from his regiment. Several over a few days and two at the 'Battle of Goose Green'. That damned place, it ruined him and I think it was what turned him into the spiteful bastard-" he stopped suddenly to stop a sob from escaping, "Did I ever tell you his left foots' false, my old mans?" he asked and she shook her head, "Nah, course I haven't," he chuckled sadly, "Sniper shot him in the ankle with a damned fifty-cal, took the damned thing right off."

He had to wipe away tear at this point and he blinked at the ones he couldn't reach, until Shizuka reached forward and gently brushed them away.

"Thanks love," he smiled up at her, "So yeah, hate that place. Never want to go there ever again."

* * *

"What can you tell us about the island, Andrew-San?" a JSDF Ranger asked.

' _Fuck my life. Seriously, fuck my life!_ ' he simmered in silence.

"The islands," he corrected, "That make up the Falklands are made up of the East and West islands. The largest settlement besides Port Stanley in East Falkland is Port Howard with other little settlements scattered all over the place. But if you're asking about where we can refuel it'll likely be at Mare Harbour in the east islands."

"Could you possibly tell us what the military strength was here?" a Marine then spoke up after raising his hand.

"No need to raise your hand for me lad," he said before picking up a red marker pen and circled several key areas in both the west and east islands, "Mare harbour is here," he stabbed the map with his fingers, "This is likely where we'll be able to refuel if there's any left but it's also where, I think, most of the Royal Navy vessels stationed here were moored, "But then we've got the F-I-D-F base here in Stanley."

After a pause and trying to remember what he'd learnt about the islands before came back to him eventually.

"Here we'll find R-A-F Mount's Alice and Byron. They're the two early warning radar sites in the west islands with Mount Kent stationed over here in the east," and marking the three sites, "But here," he finally circled, "Is the Mount Pleasant Complex. This is where there were supposed to be somewhere between nine and twelve hundred troops permanently stationed here."

"Missile defenses were scattered mainly around the west islands after the Falklands war and only a few years ago the British military deployed multiple Rapier missile systems to take down any aircraft that could pose a threat to the islands. I think there are also several twenty-millimeter Vulcan cannons around still too. But they're nothing compared to the Type Twenty-three Frigates, Type Forty-Five guided missile destroyers and the Trafalgar-class nuclear attack sub's that were there as well."

"That's…a lot just to protect a few square miles of island," the same Marine that had asked the question.

"Part of the British Empire lad," he snorted, "What was left of it anyway…fucking mess. Anything else y'all need to know?"

"The lay of the land, what can you tell us about that?"

"I never actually spent my time on the islands walking the hills of the place since my old team were on a stop over because of bad weather at the time. Spent four days cooped up in a hotel waiting for a storm to pass so we could fly out to Columbia. Going from sub-zero temps to heat in the high degrees fahrenheit is a real good way to make you sick."

"But what I can tell you is when it's cold you don't wanna be up in the hills or scouting out too far. The roads themselves, can't say what they were like before the outbreak, but during my time most of them were gravel roads except for the ones in the towns and some villages. And the higher into the hills you go there's only mud roads and foot trails."

"There are also sections of the islands still cordoned off to this day because of all the minefields the Argies put down, a hundred and seventeen in total with somewhere between ten and twenty-two thousand land mines of various types still scattered around the place and every so often there was always one pissed off farmer because one of his sheep would get turned into a mutton because of leftover anti-vehicle ordnance."

"But why wasn't it ever cleared up?"

"We never had the kit back then in the eighties lads. All we could do back then was figure out where it was and cordon the whole area off."

* * *

For days there were meetings with Andrew and multiple members of the Marines and the Ranger squads that would be handling the process of heading ashore. Thankfully he wouldn't be the one going with them but he wanted to make sure that at least the men and women going were prepared for what they could face. There weren't any signals coming from any of the bases and when they pinged the radar towers or the RAF base, they didn't get a response of any type.

Unless they could say for certain that the defenses weren't still active they would need to send troops over in the LCAC's while the ships that would await confirmation they had fuel would have all counter-measures active along with all of the Phalanx guns aimed at the shoreline and out to sea, all radios set to monitor multiple frequency's so they would catch any signals that were possibly active with both radar and sonar active too, just to be safe.

* * *

The following day, day six of them crossing the Pacific Ocean and entered the South Atlantic there had been a real change of temperature. All of the men, women and operating personnel aboard the George Washington and the escorts JMSDF warships were all feeling the chill and had broken out the cold weather clothing. Mechanics aboard each vessel was working hard to make sure that the heating systems were operating at peak capacity to keep everybody aboard warm and making sure not to overload the system at the same time.

At the same time the rations of both civilian and military personnel had increased by an extra meal a day until they reached the Gulf of Mexico. Miso soup and coffee rations were also extended, so when Green Troop had entered the canteen to get their meals and Jim was given an extra-large serving of the navy swill they called 'coffee' none of the others knew whether to laugh or cry and then laugh at how thankful he seemed to react when he was handed the larger mug.

* * *

On day seven, a week after leaving Tokonosu, they had arrived in the waters of the Falkland Islands. No sooner had their anchors been dropped three LCAC's were deployed from the USS Bonhomme Richard's well deck, the only other US vessel beside three JMSDF vessels. A fourth team was deployed by an Osprey and was heading directly towards RAF Mount Pleasant. A drone operator had flown his miniature aircraft over the island a few hours before they had arrived in the area and found a disturbing scene on the runway.

It looked as though an Airbus A400M Atlas had attempted to take off from the island but had collided with a second aircraft upon take-off, a Voyager KC2 transporter. There were multiple vehicles scattered all around the base from the looks of the drones' video feed before it cut out and losing the drone. Already, QRF teams were being assembled with the CH-47J Chinook helicopters aboard the George Washington and both Seahawk helicopters from the Kongo-Class guided missile destroyer's JS Kongo and JS Myoko. The JS Hamana, the fleet's Towada-class replenishment oiler, was kept away from the fleet of ships in case of an unexpected attack by hostile forces that might have been lurking in the area.

However, just suppose somebody was hiding somewhere close by with intentions of attacking, the fleet had one final trump-card hidden up their sleeves.

It was only a few hours later after the Marines and Rangers had gone ashore they had reported in they had secured the dockyards and the port, clearing minimal resistance and once they had set up sniper teams and made sure the building in and around the areas were both secure they were able to bring in the oiler. Once the Hamana was hooked up and began draining oil from the tanks designated for refuelling ships.

Soon afterwards they received word from the Seals that had been sent to Mount Pleasant. The airfield was secure, only encountering three undead wearing British Army uniforms, they said there wasn't anything they could recover from the vehicles scattered around the area as the engines seemed to had been stripped for parts, the mounted weapons were rusted with all of the ammunition being expended too. But when they had been searching the base, they had come across a discovery inside a hanger. The doors had been chained up and padlocked. Needless to say, that curiosity had gotten the better of the operators and they had quickly broken out the bolt cutters and after several minutes with the chains falling free, they had opened the doors to only rush backwards away from the opening once the smell hit them.

Inside they found countless bodies. Many of them were all piled into the corners and along the sides of the room but running along the middle were a few hundred body bags. With the doors having opened with a loud squealing noise the men were nearly disturbed to watch more than a dozen within a few feet of them already shuffling weakly with the occupants trying to escape.

Behind the same hanger they found a large pit that had been dug out, several broken down JCB excavators sitting nearby, with charred and blackened bones in the bottom of the pit with mountains of ash.

This discovery was shocking but it wasn't something unexpected. Many teams over the years had found similar 'disposal sites' around Japan and even in the surrounding countries. Some were bigger and some were smaller. But on many occasions, they did find evidence they were recent and hopefully it meant that survivors were ridding the land of the dead and not each other.

Thankfully, the Seals would do the honourable thing. Instead of leaving the dead to wriggle around in the body bags for the remainder of their days they used their white phosphorous grenades and burnt down the hangers and the piles of bodies that resided within.

* * *

Standing on the deck of the carrier alone looking towards the coastline, Andrew watched as several blooms of smoke began spiralling up into the sky. He'd heard about what the teams had found on the ground and it upset him to know that nobody had come across any survivors. Ofcourse, they had been told not to engage with anybody they found for the sake they were possibly hostile, but still. But what got him the most was that the men and women that had lived on and had been guarding the island, despite many being naturally 'Falklanders' they were still also British. And to hear there were undead troops still on the airfield and inside the hanger made him sick to his stomach.

But it also made him wonder. How had the A400 and the KC2 collide on the runway instead of them both being aligned on the same path and not left for either New Zealand or Australia?

And why had they left the dead, one's that were still active, to wriggle around in their body bags without putting the poor bastards out of their misery?

These questions would continue to bother him as long as he thought about them, but he couldn't simply shake off the feeling that something bad had happened here amidst all the chaos of the fall. He stood there watching the black smoke rising, knowing the fires burning through the hangers and houses their troops had found full of bodies were raging fiercely. But the sad thing he found was that he had actually been hoping that the troops found something that foul play had been involved.

* * *

"The Marine and Ranger teams have all returned, everybody accounted for and everybody passed a medical check. No scratches, bites or any injuries," Shizuka reported to one of the sailors as she and her team of doctors and nurses checked over the men and women that had returned from the islands. The last few that had been checked over were in the middle of redressing themselves and shivering as even within the depths of the ship they still felt the chill.

"Damn, now I can see why that British guy hates this place," she heard a marine talking with his buddies as he was pulling on his boots.

"Yeah. I can't honestly see why anybody would want to live down here. Grounds frozen and there no way anybody would be able to plant anything here."

"Did you see all of those sheep carcasses? Makes me think they were the last ones to go. All the bodies in the houses we found we nearly nothing but skeletons."

"Not to mention all those kids we found too. And some of them…we just fucking babies."

Shizuka eventually had to move on. She couldn't listen to anymore after hearing that. It wasn't as though she hadn't heard these things before. She had been sitting in the shadows sometimes or just around the corner and would listen to conversations from those that had just returned from the mainland or from an extended mission across the ocean. She had heard some awful things from some of the troops that returned from the 'red zones' as many called them. How they had found similar scenes of death, destruction and carnage they had found on the islands but the worst she had heard of came from the dreaded 'black zones'.

There was only one sector in Tokonosu with a black zone and it was in the center of downtown. The area had been packed with civilians during the day; teenagers going to school, adults going to work or generally being out for the day shopping. When the first of the undead reached the downtown quadrant of the city they hadn't been prepared for the level of chaos that followed. Within the first hour, hundreds had been bitten and began to turn but by the afternoon when there were still police responding to emergency calls and the first vehicles of emergency responders arrived, they were confronted with thousands of them.

Contrary to what many believed, but even after the first three weeks of after the outbreak hit there were still government agencies working their hardest to try and contain and destroy the disease. But in the end, it was all for nothing. Bulldozers pushing mounds of bodies into the pits for burning were overrun, soldiers trying to keep the workers safe retreated and disappeared and disease would have run rampant if the area hadn't been fire bombed by the navy.

Even now, all she could see was that this was a losing battle against an enemy with over three billion 'soldiers' in its ranks and it seemed to be rising daily.

Once the last of the marines left the medical bay and heading back to go about their duties Shizuka finished up her reports and headed out herself back to her cabin. She knew her girls were with Rei, Saeko and Oyuki this evening so it gave her and her husband the evening to spend together. In a few days they would be arriving in Texas and during that time she knew she would be busy, no doubt putting her skills to use in the hospital where the equipment they were transporting to San Antonio and teaching new doctors and nurses the ins and outs of every piece of technology she had had to learn herself how to use herself with minimal training.

So tonight, she figured she would give her husband a night he wouldn't forget and couldn't help the little smirk that spread across her lips when she remembered she had remembered to pack the handcuffs that Rika gave her.

* * *

With the Seals back aboard and only a few hours remaining until the oiler had drained the reserves in the harbour, Green Troop had sat down at an empty table in the canteen to discuss their next move. It would only be a couple of days now until they reached the coastline with Texas and between only a few Marines onboard that were native Texans they consulted with Jim about the best way to head from the carrier to San Antonio.

"If we had left in those large cargo aircraft at the airfield just north of Tokonosu we could have been there by now," Tajima said as he idly sat looking at the map of the United States as it had been five years earlier, but now it had large red blobs sketched over it indicating radiation zones.

"Only problem is that while they were secure, we would have no way to know if they were flyable. Plus, we haven't got anybody that could pilot them anyway," Rika explained, "I understand that being aboard a ninty-seven thousand long-ton ship isn't that much fun Tajima-San, but it's only for a few more days."

"Well we're flying in by helicopter but we don't want to be hundreds of miles away along the coast from S-A, best to get as close as we can. Say we drop anchor here," he pointed to the coast to a point labelled 'Corpus Christi', "And then we can fly all the way to San Antonio from there. I believe our plans are to set down at the airport and we'll be met with a vehicle escort before arriving at the final meeting place."

"So…, no heading to a hotel first to freshen up? Shockin'," Andrew chuckled as he got a good look at where Jim was pointing, "At Corpus, I know there's it's a navy base, but isn't it still operational? Wouldn't it be best to simply dock there instead of out on the sea?"

"As much as it would be preferable, and as much as I hate to admit it, if the deal doesn't go down as expected and we have to make a quick retreat we need to have the ship ready for an immediate departure. We haven't talked to these people that claim to be in charge of the state now to be friendly, since, for all we know they may and try to take away from us what we have and hold dear," he said peering over to Rika and as he peered over to Andrew he could see his friend with a grim look on his face, no doubt thinking about Shizuka and his girls.

"Until we can make sure that they are friendly, non-military personnel will remain on the ship under protection of the JSDF," as he peered around and it made the others do the same, "We can't trust that the Marines here with us will hold more honour to their fellow Americans than the people they've been with the last few years as they try to take the ship from us so they'll all be deployed to come with us."

"Jesus," Mikhail chuckled, "And people used to say that I mistrusted Americans."

* * *

After leaving the canteen behind and his fellow troop heading off in separate directions, Andrew couldn't shake the feeling that the paranoia he felt before was now following him and he would catch himself looking over his shoulder. Nobody was ever there except the people he had just walked by or those going about their duties and reaching the door to his cabin he couldn't help but chuckle at how stupid it all was. Yeah, he admitted he was still worried and it was probably a good idea to keep the civilians aboard the ship in case something happened and the Marines aboard still pledged loyalty to their own country over them.

Before entering he gave a look each way down the corridor just once more and relaxed seeing it was clear. Opening the latch and walking inside he found Shizuka sitting on the bottom bunk of their beds reading a light novel she'd brought with her. Hearing the door open she looked up from the book to him and smiled, ear-marking the page she was reading before putting it aside and standing up and walking over to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a deep kiss.

Pushing into him, Shizuka kept herself pressed against him and using his weight she closed the door behind them and when she heard it clunk, she discreetly smirked into their kiss. But the surprise had taken him by such a surprise he didn't even realise what she had planned and was lost in the moment.

Ever so slowly, she teasingly started to move her hands so they traveled down from around his neck, to his shoulder and then started to slowly slide them down his arms and when she passed his shoulders, she felt him shiver and nearly paused when she felt it.

' _Oh, this is too cute!_ ' she thought happily.

She continued to move down his arms until the point where she finally reached his wrists and now, she had them both pinned behind his back, right where she wanted him.

' _Now! I must strike now!_ ' and before he was able to react, with a flick of the wrist she cuffed his first wrist, to which Andrew broke the kiss and looked at her confusingly, "What the-?" but he wasn't quick enough to react until the second cuff was now around his other wrist and securely tightened.

"What the heck are you-Whoa!" he suddenly exclaimed as he felt himself being pushed backwards onto the bunk and just as quickly Shizuka was on him again and now she had her hands pressed down into the mattress of the bed on both sides of him, giving him little room to move.

"Now-Now, Andrew-San!" she cooed, "There's no need for naughty language!" she tutted and wagged a finger at him. He watched as she reached out of sight for something and a moment later he could tell she held but it was kept so he couldn't see it and his eye went back to her, "What are you doing?" he asked quietly, all the time trying to keep his breathing calm.

She gently leaned down close and placed a gentle loving kiss on his cheek before moving back so they were eye to eye, "I promise I'm not going to hurt you. I would never do that," she whispered and placed another kiss on his other cheek, "But when we get to America, I don't know what will happen or if we'll get much time to spend together in private."

He remained quiet and listened to her as she tried to find the words she needed.

"So, for tonight," she spaced herself as he breathing became heavier before she stood upright and slowly started to pull up the hem of her shirt to reveal her midriff and her breasts until she tossed it onto the chair nearby, "For tonight, I want us to be together and I want to be one with you."

Before he could even say anything, she was on her knees before him and started to unbuckle his pants by removing the belt and then gripping the fly, but didn't go any further when she noticed how quiet he'd gone and had to look at him. She needed to know that it was alright for her to do this and she didn't want him to think she was assaulting him.

"My love?" she whispered and looked on with worried eyes.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly gasped and smiled at her, "It's alright, sweetheart. You just caught me off guard," he chuckled lightly, "If…if you're okay with this," he had to catch his own breath then and smiled down at her to let her know that everything was alright, "if you're okay with this, then I won't stop you."

No other words were spoken and instead, Shizuka continued with her earlier teasing and gripped the fly once again, but not between her fingers but with her teeth, and ever so slowly began to drag it down…but suddenly stopped when she seemed to have remembered something important. A second later she sat back and, in her hands, she produced a gag.

"We can't have you screaming out now, can we," she giggled and all he could do was swallow nervously and hope she took it easy on him.

' _God, if you do exist and are up there_ ' he paused his line of thought and watched as his wife leaned forward towards him ' _please let her know to be gentle with me_ '.

* * *

Finally, three days later after leaving the Falkland Islands, the carrier group found itself entering the Gulf of Mexico and it hadn't been until the day before they could already feel the difference in temperature. Meaning everybody was able to remove and store the winter clothing and the ship's crew was able to rest easy knowing they would soon be entering friendly waters.

As the fleet began to close the distance between themselves and Corpus Christi the men and women began making final preparations. The CH-47's were all given their final checks and the vehicles Green Troop would be using were also given one final check along with the motorcycles mounted on the backs.

They stood aside from the Marines and Ranger teams as they checked their carbines; making sure they were sighted in, batteries changed and the weaponlights and laser sights were working correctly before fastening on the suppressors. Only Andrew and Mikhail had attached grenade launchers to their weapons and aside from the normal thirteen magazines each operator carried they carried an additional eight 40mm high-explosive rounds each. Rika's MK48 was checked over twice by the female sniper and made sure as she looked at each of her team mates that they were each carrying an extra two belts in addition to their own gear and Jim carrying the spare barrel.

The Humvee's themselves had an extensive arsenal of firepower if it was required but during transport it would all be locked away and would only be mounted when they arrived at the airport. Final checks were made on the battery and electrical systems, fuel and oil and the engines were also given extensive checks along with the wheels and steering.

If all went well, they would be moored up tomorrow morning and flying up to San Antonio and arrive in the city a few hours later around midday.

* * *

As the couple lay in their shared bunk together, Rika nuzzled close into her husband's chest and sighed gently as she felt his fingers gently stroking down the back of her neck in a comforting manner. Today had been a tiring day for everybody getting everything prepared but now as they tried to get at least a couple hours of sleep they were both wired. A million thoughts were flashing through their minds and all they could keep thinking about was if something terrible was going to happen the moment they set down at the airport. They knew they would have air support flying in with a pair of JSDF AH-64's and a UH-60J Blackhawk shadowing them with several Rangers aboard armed with multi-shot grenade launchers.

They had gone over multiple contingency plans if something were to happen while they were either in transit to their final destination after they had arrived in the city or before when they went to touch down at the airport. They had trained for these situations dozens of times but putting them into action for the first time as a team against possible living targets instead of the dead was something they weren't prepared for. Andrew and Mikhail were the only ones in the team who had taken part in operations where they needed aggressive driving and defensive tactics against multiple armed threats where as Jim had been trained but had never put the skills to use and she and Tajima had only taken part as being part of a sniper team before the fall.

Right now, she knew that Andrew, Mikhail and Tajima were just about finishing up welding together the make-shift battering rams they had been building from scrap metal and girders and mounted them onto the front of their vehicles. They figured they'd only get one good use out of them before they either shattered or became dead weight that they'd have to ditch them.

But despite everything that could happen, Rika was hoping, nay, praying that everything would go smoothly and without incident. Already she was making plans for their down time and she had been talking with Jim about all the places they could visit.

Taking in a deep breath, she held it for a few seconds and exhaled. She looked up at her husband and found him looking down at her. Their gaze was only held for a few brief seconds before they moved closer and their lips met in a tender-loving kiss.

* * *

"Now girls, tomorrow's a pretty big day for everybody. I know you're both restless about being cooped up on this ship for the last week, but after tomorrow if everything goes alright, they're going to be bringing you over in a helicopter. You'll be allowed to walk around the city and apparently, I've heard that we're going to be set up in big fancy hotels during our stay."

Akane was sitting in her big sisters' lap as she listened to her father telling them what was happening tomorrow. She had always wanted to see new places and right now she was excited about the thoughts of being allowed to step into a city that was hopefully filled with good people, not the horrible smelly ones that wanted to hurt good people, and she wanted to explore. All her life she had known the airport as her home and now to learn she was getting the chance to finally meet new people and experience a new land, she couldn't wait. And Jimu Oji-San had even told her that the steak was some of the best in the world. Having eaten few little beef, pork or chicken in her short life outside of what came out of an MRE pack that her daddy would save for her from his meals through the day. He would always save her and Alice something good and a little something extra for her mother. But even though she was approaching her fifth birthday in a couple of months and may still have been a child she was stupid about how little he'd been eating lately and how he seemed to be getting thinner too.

She worried for her father's health and would always remind him when they ate together. He would say to her about taking her time to enjoy what she had and she would repeat it and when she drank, she would nudge him and make him imitate her. He always smiled when she did that and played along so she wouldn't get upset.

"So," his voice made her focus on him again, "Tomorrow when I go on the helicopter, I want you to stay here with mummy so that she doesn't get lonely, okay?" he asked as he held them both in his arms, "And do everything she tells you too. I want to hear when I see you next that you've both been on your best behaviour and both finished your meals and cleaned up after yourselves as well."

"Yes daddy," Alice spoke softly against her father as he held them both.

"Hai, papa," Akane said just as softly and she earned a chuckle from her daddy. He loved that she was learning her native language as she should and would always praise her for being a smart girl at such a young age to pick up on it so quickly.

"I love you both," and she felt him shift slightly and looking up she saw he was looking at mommy, "I love you too," he smiled happily.

"I love you too," she replied and moved forward to embrace them all in her arms.

Akane may have been young, and there may have been a lot of things about the world she didn't know about or understand yet. But right here, right now, this was all she needed to know and understand.

She had a wonderful family and they loved her, and she loved them.

Her mother and father, her sister, her uncles and aunts and all of her friends.

' _I love you all'_

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

Evening all. Hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. It didn't turn out exactly as i had hoped for the first chapter of the beginning of 'Arc 2' of the story. For the next 3-4 chapters we'll be exploring the lands of Southern Texas and learning how the people of the 'Lone Star State' have become accustomed to the world after 'the fall' along with the rest of the country. We'll get to see plenty of action, drama, comedy and even some romance as we explore the city of San Antonio and the surrounding counties. I hope to also write in some of my own experiences from my trip to San Antonio which was nearly a year ago last September!

Already there is a major spoiler in this chapter for the original 'Last Alarm' story written by Firemanjim and i had to seriously think about including it in the chapter, but for the sake of chapter/story development i hope it works. There was also a particular scene in the story that was going to be extended on here but it would have made me either make the story 'M-Rated' but then i could guarantee somebody here would have made a complaint about it to the website moderator's...if they even still exist on this website, i honestly don't know.

Anyway! The next chapter, Chapter 5, is already being worked on but it may take a little longer to get out than this one. The reason why is because me and Firemanjim are working on them together and i'll need his input a lot to get the details correct so in case there are other Texan's reading this i don't go fucking it up. But also because we're including some very special characters and ones you'll know right away and probably make you re-read it just so you got it right the first time, lol

Anyway, i'll be off now, enough of my ramblings. Y'all take care now and stay safe. Please review, follow and favorite and we'll see each other again soon!


	6. ARC II Chapter V-I: New Texas Republic

…

 _ **(AN: First of all, ladies and gents, I'd like to apologise for the considerable time gap since the upload of the previous chapter and this one. Over the winter period I'm sure many of you that work in retail would understand how hectic the Christmas and New Year period can get. Not only that, I've been having to put up with numerous illnesses and colds over the last few weeks as well and only now do I seem to have a chance to try and feel normal again. With the winter steadily drawing to a close I hope that I'll get more active with my writing again and hopefully have monthly, or bi-weekly, updates. Also, as a reminder, since the last update you might see some changes that won't match with previous chapters. If there is anything big, I will go back and chance it at a later date but for now, on with the chapter and see y'all at the end.)**_

…

Chapter 5-1

The U.S.S George Washington was anchored roughly a mile outside of Corpus Christi. The deck crews were getting the helicopters brought up from below decks aboard the large hydraulic lift and had them wheeled out onto the open deck where several teams of mechanics and their apprentices were ready and waited to get to work making sure they were flight ready. Everybody that operated and worked on the helicopters knew they were flight worthy before they had left Tokonosu but there was no harm with doing another check. The last thing anybody wanted now was to get up in the air and take a dunk in the ocean just minutes after getting into the air.

The first aircraft onto the deck was the large twin-rotor Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. It was to be considered the most important aircraft to be checked, despite all the others being piloted and carrying the others that were heading into San Antonio being important also, since it was carrying the 'exotic' medical supplies and specialist equipment that had been requested by the New Texas Republic council since they had used a considerable amount of their stockpile recently. It wasn't clear to the security teams escorting the Tokonosu council leaders but it had brought cause for concern. Everybody knew that if somebody got into a fight with a Zulu or a Romeo the only 'cure' was a bullet to the brain and any medical supplies used would be considered a waste.

Following the Osprey were the three Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion heavy transports. Originally the plan had been to use some of the JASDF's CH-47JA's but after careful consideration by the pilots and other flight crews they had more man hours and experience with the CH-53's to transport the troops and the council to the city. Lastly came their escorts, a pair of United States Marine Corps Bell AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters. These birds had been outfitted to carry a deadly and heavy payload to engage ground targets. Nobody was expecting them to be attacked by the people that was welcoming them with open arms, but it never hurt to be prepared.

When they had anchored off the shore, they had spotted numerous vessels on the water. Even though they were only a mile away it was still hard to make out their make or models. Jimmy had been on the deck with a pair of bino's watching them and he was sure that at least one of them was an old Vietnam-era or possibly a World War Two PT boat. If that thing was indeed what Jimmy thought it was, armed with torpedoes and deck mounted .50-cal machine guns and 40mm cannons then they had every right to be worried. Jim had said though that the possibility of the cannons working on a PT boat today would have been slim considering they were museum pieces but one of the deck crew had brought up a valid point.

'This is Texas! Course the damn cannons work!'

The crews operating the ships defences made sure the Phalanx gatling cannons were loaded and operational with the muzzle aimed towards the shore. The other vessels also had their anti-ship weapons ready but their firepower lacked what the Americans vessels had.

However, the fears of the crew were soon put to rest when a simple act of communication was established with the NTR council to ask about the numerous armed vessels patrolling the area around Corpus Christi. Some months ago, before any communication had been made with anybody outside the former United States of America the Texas National Guard had their jets in the air patrolling the coastline, looking out for either large groups of the dead or for surviving military vessels. They had spotted a large vessel floating adrift a good twenty miles off the coast and upon investigation and several fly by's they noticed there were no crew on the deck and after numerous attempts to contact the tower they were met only by static. The ship they said had looked old or had been neglected moderate service or maintenance, there were no identifying markers, no flag nor any name and looked ready to fall apart the next time it went through a storm and it wasn't until a final fly over they spotted the first signs of 'life' wandering onto the deck.

Knowing full well they couldn't allow the vessel to beach itself for fear of them getting onto land and then spreading amongst the farmers in the nearby areas, they sunk the old ship and it took less than thirty minutes before she disappeared below the waves and taking the former crew down with it.

* * *

"What contingency do we have in place if we need to make a quick exfil?" Rika asked the others as the five operators sat around a small table.

"The Cobra pilots already have orders to fire upon anything or anybody that poses a threat to our people once we're over land and the operators for the ship's defence systems are to engage anybody that comes within range of the guns at high speeds. They've been told to keep away and so far, they seem to be doing so. Marines and J-S-D-F troops staying behind will have machine guns set up around the decks of each vessel and patrolling teams as well in case anybody tries to sneak aboard using a submersible."

"What about possible air attacks?" Tajima then asked as he flipped through a note pad.

"Stinger missiles. We've had them distributed around so they'll over-lap. No aircraft's getting close to landing on this deck without taking a missile right up the arse. Plus, the phalanx guns can be used to target any aircraft they might miss."

"I don't like this," Jim said and everybody stopped to look at him. They all knew that talking about defending the ships from possible aggressive actions by the NTR would upset him.

"We've only been here a day, a single day, and already we're thinking up ways to kill as many of those people, my own countrymen, as if they were the deadliest threat alive."

"And you think they haven't already thought the same thing for us?" Mikhail asked in a surprisingly calm manner, "We're likely the first people they have encountered for a very long time and we've travelled nearly a third of the way around the world just to get here and we're arriving in a fleet of several ships, all of them heavily armed and you think they might not have also had the idea that we might be hostile too?"

Mikhail then continued, "I don't want to start a fight or upset you comrade. But in this day and age everybody is suspicious of everybody and especially of those with large numbers."

"Not much different from the days of old, when it was the east versus the west," Tajima said.

"I suppose you could look at it like that," Mikhail replied, "Only mankind has always known to be quiet…crafty, I suppose Andrew here would say," the Russian clapped their team leader on the shoulder who shrugged, "The only good thing that the Zulu's have is they have no ulterior motive. They make their desires very obvious every time we engage them in the field so at least they won't potentially stab us in the back."

"I know that, it just…" Jim groaned.

"Leaves a sour taste in your mouth," Andrew said as he rustled through one of the M.R.E packets that was sitting on the table they had torn open hoping to find some Skittles, "Look at it this way buddy. We prepare ourselves for the worst and hope for the best. If everything turns out to be okay, then we'll each apologise."

Jim remained quiet for a moment before he finally looked to his friend, "Kinda was hoping for some sort of prize instead. Don't I get anything instead of an apology?"

"If you think we're handing over our coffee rations for the next month again you can sod off mate. Last time I went without caffeine after nearly a week I had the worst headaches," he sighed and looked at his digital watch and noted the time, "Okay, we've got about two hours before we're due to leave. Head back to your rooms, make sure you've got what you need and then grab ya kits from the armory before heading to the deck for final brief."

* * *

Keeping a promise to his girls, Andrew spent a full hour with Shizuka, Alice and Akane as he lay on the cot and hugged the three most important girls in his life close. They held each other for a long time, happy to be here in this moment despite knowing that soon he would have to depart to head off to face an uncertain encounter with a group they had only just started communicating with. They all knew that what was being offered seemed too good to be true for some medical supplies and equipment to go into a hospital, and while the council were the ones that had set everything up it was the Marines and Green Troop that would be taking the fallout if things went to shit.

At least he couldn't say that the council weren't putting their own hides on the line as well. The eight members of the council that had arrived, minus the four that remained back on the floating island, would be taking the lead once they landed at the San Antonio airport and had been informed they would have transport provided for them the moment they had landed to their final destination. What the team had found mildly infuriating was that Takagi hadn't given the team providing his security any details as to who the people providing the transport were and the only details he gave were cryptic and Andrew made a silent promise to himself that if things went bad then he would be using Souichiro as a human shield.

Zeke was laying on the rug on the floor beside the bunk the girls had been sleeping in together for the last week and now he was sat looking up at the girls as Alice leaned down and picked the pup up and set him down amongst them. No family was complete without a dog and despite their initial meeting a few years ago not giving them a great start he still ruffled the dog's ears as a sign he still cared for the mutt.

"I've got to head off now," he sighed but the girls nor his wife seemed to want to move.

"C'mon," he chuckled and then eventually started to feel them shift, "I know, I know, I'm a comfortable source of warmth but believe me when you get topside, you'll be dressing lightly."

"How long do you think you'll be ashore before coming back?" Shizuka asked him as she managed to pull herself into a sitting position beside him.

He sighed heavily before speaking, "Things being as they are, if they go well then I can't see us being in the city more than a day or two at the most. But I think that Takagi's got something planned for us to stay here for a week or so. Kinda like a mini-vacation so we'll be put up somewhere in the city for the duration of our stay. Plus, I know the ships that we brought along as escorts need refueling and the oiler needs topping off too."

"A vacation?" Akane asked, "What's that?"

"Think of it as a weekend and then the next week you don't have to go to school. Several days where you don't have to do anything you don't want to," Alice jumped in to save her parents as they tried to explain it. Both the adults just chuckled though, thinking how easy it was for their oldest daughter to explain it better than they could without over-complicating it.

"Will you have a chance to play with us when you get back?" Akane asked hopefully.

He didn't have the heart to tell her he'd likely be working the whole time they were in the NTR but he would try his best to make time for his girls.

"Two days work, at most, and some rest when I get back and a shower, then I'm all yours."

* * *

"Make sure those mags are topped off. Don't want any of you carrying anything half-loaded. And make sure we're each carrying two spare belts for the forty-eight and somebody with at least one spare barrel!"

"I got the sixty-seven's right here," Tajima grunted as he carefully laid down a heavy green wooden box painted with warnings and danger stickers on the prep table and opened the lid to reveal a set of twenty M67 fragmentation grenades.

"Tape the spoons and each carry at least two," Mikhail said as he placed a wheel of black electrical tape on the table next to Rika, who quickly took it up and ran the tape around the two grenades she'd taken from the box and made sure the safety spoons were kept firmly in place in case the pin was accidentally pulled when it was in her vest.

Mikhail had been re-designated at the teams' machine gunner and now took charge of operating their MK48 machine gun. Originally Rika had been the team's resident gunner, but for the duration of their mission in the NTR she was happy to retake her old role as the unit's sniper with Tajima backing her up as assistant marksman and rifleman.

Every operator in the unit had worked in environments with extreme temperatures and humidity before, but unlike their resident Texan none of them were prepared for the blast of heat they were met with when they had walked out onto the deck of the aircraft carrier.

"Jesus Wept," Andrew huffed and immediately pulled his cap around so the peak covered his eye, "I expected it to be warm but not like this. Afghanistan was a lot cooler than this."

"I call bullshit on that right now," Rika said as she tied her hair back into a ponytail and swiveled her own cap around too, "Of all the stories I heard you tell about the middle east you always said that it was like living in Lucifer's ball sack."

"True love," he replied, "But that was just hot and dry air. Here's it's hot and humid as fuck!"

"Been on deck all of two minutes and he's already complaining," Jim chuckled as he walked past the moaning Brit and towards the three Sikorsky helicopters were the Marine contingent were already waiting to board.

"Sod off. You know where I came from and its always raining, cold and bleedin' miserable."

* * *

The deck of the carrier was now flooded with troops and activity. Mechanics were making their final checks of the aircraft to make sure nothing was going to fall off during flight and the pilots were all going pre-flight and systems checks. The Osprey stood off to itself away from the transports and escort heli's, being loaded with boxes of much needed medical supplies and even some specialist equipment they had removed from the USNS Mercy that was being taken to the SAMMC (San Antonio Military Medical Center) where they had been informed that the population of San Antonio itself received medical treatment and even their National Guard and other armed forces received medical training before being sent out into the field.

The Tokonosu Council members that were stood before Green Troop, each a representative of their own outpost of either Tokonosu or another settlement somewhere in mainland Japan that was safe from the undead, waited patiently as Prime Minister Souichiro Takagi stood off to the side with his wife and daughter for a few precious minutes before he separated himself from them and walked over to join the group.

"Are we ready to depart?" he asked the group and received a round of nods and verbal acknowledgments. Everybody else present had already had their last-minute conversations with their families and friends and all that was needed now was the final 'okay' from the pilots and mechanics that they were ready for departure.

Takagi looked around and saw that their protection team were present, save for Jimu-San and Rika-San who were stood off to the side just a few yards away with their daughter, Saeko, and her little adopted daughter Oyuki Busujima. The little girl liked the attention she received from the three adults and it made him smile. He could only just remember the days back when Saya used to smile and giggle like Oyuki was and if only he had spent more effort on being with his family than instead of his political activism days then he was sure his memories with her in the years before the outbreak wouldn't be so jaded.

The others stood ready with their weapons but looked towards Jimu-San and Rika-San without speaking a word and remaining silent for the duration until they finally separated from each other and they watched the mother and daughter return towards the coning tower and disappeared inside. It was then that Souichiro noticed Shizuka standing by the same door that Saeko had gone through with Oyuki and then saw as she and the two young girls waved in their direction. He peered over his shoulder and saw Andrew-San wave towards them before watching them also walk inside the same entrance to the ship.

"Why didn't Shizuka bring the girls over?" he heard Mikhail ask and listened as he waited with the other delegates.

"The sounds of the engines of the heli's are too much for the girls. Akane gets upset with loud noises. We had our time together downstairs but they wanted to wave us off before we left."

"Should get her some earplugs or something. Think we've got several pairs of ear defenders down in our kit bags," Rika said as she hefted the HK417 converted battle rifle so it lay across her chest held in both arms.

"Well, if things go well today and tomorrow then hopefully afterwards we'll see what we can do and bring them to the city too. Until I know more that these folks can be trusted and they aren't just some large cult of some sort then-"

"They aren't a cult, Andy," Jim spoke up and sent a look towards his friend that almost seemed to plead with him not to call his fellow Texans such things.

"Like I was saying; 'IF' they are a cult of some sort then I sure as hell ain't risking their safety. And 'IF' things go well and they aren't, then there's no trouble and we can all happily go about our business."

"And if there is?" Mikhail asked.

Takagi however already knew the answer.

"Then we leave. And if they try anything to stop us; I'll kill any fucker that gets in my way."

* * *

It had taken another twenty minutes after they had originally been told their transport would be ready, but now the Marines were piling into the CH-53's and an escort troop boarded the Osprey to protect the medical supplies and equipment until they arrived within the city limits. The council and protection team boarded the third Sikorsky helicopter together before the Marines and JSDF travelling with them boarded afterwards. The men and women stowed their gear, secured their harnesses and made themselves ready for departure.

It had been a hot while since many of them had traveled in a helicopter anywhere and some of the Marines looked shaky.

"Don't worry guys," one of the senior Marines called out, "It's been a while since we flew in ones of these birds but they're the best in the business. Built to last and we'll get their safe and sound!"

Andrew couldn't help but snigger as he heard the 'pep talk' the man was giving the troops. He'd flown in enough heli's before to know that no helicopter, no matter how well built, needs a whole hell of a lot of maintenance than their mechanics were barely able to perform on their own fleet of aircraft. He never could remember what the annual budget used to be for the United States armed forces to have daily maintenance and repairs of their equipment but figured it had to be nearly fifty times what the British government gave their own troops. Probably the reason why so many of their old heli's took a dive when they were out on training operations.

They all suddenly felt the jolt as the helicopter began it's assent off the deck. He looked around the others and saw from their faces they were all determined now, they were in the zone and ready to face whatever lay ahead. The members of the council and other delegates looked their best to not show their discomfort with the helicopter climbing in altitude. When the helicopter steadily began to bank forwards, he felt himself shift to his left and was now leaning a little but the harness kept him from falling into the person sitting beside him.

The crossing from the carrier and escort ships to flying directly over the Corpus Christi naval base took only a few minutes and then as soon as they were flying over the landscape below, they were all in genuine awe of what they could see on the ground. The base seemed fully functional, several ships were docked up and dozens of smaller vessels were moored in the open waters. Trucks moved through the base moved troops and supplies and they even spotted numerous Humvee's and even a few armoured vehicles on patrol as well.

"That's a whole lot of organization for a military base. Even after this long we've barely got a fully staffed or operational base anywhere in Japan," one of the JSDF troops said from amongst the Marines, "Doubt we ever will again."

"Don't talk like that buddy," one of the Americans spoke up, "Those things won't be around forever. Once they've rotted away, we'll take back what we lost and restore order, peace and stability."

' _Sounds kinda like something somebody that's lost their marbles would say_ ' Andrew thought as he peeked down to his HK416 carbine and the attached Crye Precision SIX12 under-barreled shotgun attachment that was bolted on the lower rail and loaded with a full cylinder of FRAG-12 explosive shotgun shells. The shotgun attachment had been a recent find during a raid on a JMSDF base where they knew that American forces had frequently been assigned too before the fall. They had made off with a significant haul of goodies from the bases' motor pool and armoury after they had torn the door down.

The job hadn't been easy, but in the end their tenacity was rewarded. They had managed to haul away a large amount of equipment and supplies. The rifle racks were all still filled with dozens of the Howa Type 89 assault rifle and several of the older Type 64's that had been converted to designated marksmen rifles. They also found crates locked in a cage and after breaking the locks and opening the crates they were all happy to find several belt-fed machine guns. Three NTK-62 general purpose machine guns but also a pair of Sumitomo M2 heavy machine guns and plenty of spare parts to boot. If they hadn't further checked they would have missed the greatest prize of all.

Before the outbreak it was known that the JSDF was ready to replace their aging weapon systems and arm their troops with more modernized equipment. They came across three crates hidden away under a large tarp. Inside they found multiple rifles at first many thought looked like some cross breed between a Remington ACR and a FN Herstal SCAR-L. The Howa Type 20 was an attempt of rearming with a indigenous rifle that was built from the best materials and could be easily used by soldiers already trained with the Type 89.

The armoury was cleared out of everything useful and when they had eventually loaded up all of their new goodies onto the trucks they had brought with them, including a few others and trailers they had recovered from the base, taken everything from the armoury, motor pool and the food stores that was still sealed and three large tankers still full with premium gasoline. The base's infirmary was also cleared out of anything useful that wasn't spoilt or broken and he even remembered Jimmy being keen to find the kitchens so he could haul away what coffee he could find as well.

The only reason the base hadn't been raided before was because the gates had been sealed and the former occupants of the base had remained within, acting like guard dogs to scare off anybody that came wandering around looking for a quick score. Thankfully, with enough people and transport available to do the job the week long expedition had been fruitful for everybody on the island and now the islands protectors were now better equipped to deal with anybody that dared to try and attack the island and its inhabitants in their absence.

Andrew's thoughts were brought back to the present when he felt the helicopter shudder when they hit minor turbulence but gave it no thought as he looked up from the weapon between his legs and peeked out a side window to the ground below and was impressed with what he saw.

The land itself looked clean and the roads seemed deserted of any abandoned vehicles, walking or downed corpses and instead the fields he did see were blooming with wild flowers and fenced off sections housing crops. He did see a mass of movement and felt his heart drop for a moment until he was able to breath a sigh of relief seeing it was actually a herd of cattle being corralled by people on horseback.

But they also spotted numerous patrols on the roads as well. Humvee's were being supported by large trucks that looked to have been converted into the 'gun trucks' he'd seen pictures of US servicemen using back in Vietnam. This being Texas he dared bet they were all equipped with at least one Browning .50-cal a piece and then either an M60 or an M240 with a MK19 or even the prized and sought after M134 minigun.

He knew that Fort Hood also housed a significant number of the US military's armoured vehicles and wasn't surprised when they saw they odd Abrams Main Battle Tank out on patrol or stationed near a town or settlement with other patrols.

"It's quite a sight, huh?" Jim asked as he sat across from him.

"Whole hell of a lot of firepower. Tanks, gun trucks and dozens of armed patrols and we're only a few miles inland," he replied evenly, "Makes me wonder what we're to expect once we enter the city limits."

"I was talking about the crops and cattle," Jim said and it earned him Andrew's glare instead of the smile he'd been hoping for. The Texan knew that the Brit was more concerned right now with their immediate safety and welfare over what the standalone state could provide them for the future. He guessed that he wasn't surprised that the man was able to switch between being a loving father and best buddy in one moment to being a soldier the next.

* * *

The city wasn't what they had expected, but it was certainly what Jim remembered. The city limits were walled off by a large wall they could only assume ran the length around the whole city. The wall looked to be roughly thirty feet tall and every few hundred yards tall lookout posts had been erected. Beyond the walls outside the city that area was dotted with impact zones where either artillery had been used or an air-to-ground rocket had struck. What they had struck could have been any number of things that came to mind.

The Marines also called out they had spotted several anti-air defences set up as well as they flew over the city. Most they said looked to be portable shoulder launchers but there were also salvo launchers loaded with multiple missiles and rockets and several large caliber gatling guns were also spotted. The streets were also clear of movement and most of what they spotted were military vehicles. Mainly Humvee's on the roads, Bradley fighting vehicles and even a couple of Stryker's were seen roaming the main highways through the city as they approached the airport.

The troops as this point began loading their rifles with magazines, making final kit checks and making sure they double checked their buddy's equipment too. Mikhail checked on both Tajima and Rika's gear while Andrew and Jim checked each other's. Already they were beginning to feel the tug as the pilots began to bank the helicopter around to follow the flight path that they had been cleared to follow to their landing area. The pilots had already been complaining to each other they didn't like being told which area they had to land, but they were now entering what was technically a foreign country and nobody relished the idea of being shot down.

The only thing any of them could do now was pray and hope for the best.

A few minutes later the airport finally came into view and it was now or never. If they wanted to turn back, they had to do it now or be committed to their mission and see it through.

With no comment or any sign or being dissuaded from what lay ahead, and what was at stake, Souichiro gave the order for them to move in.

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

Hey folks, hoped you enjoyed this, short, new entry to the story. As i said earlier guys, i can only apologize again for the sever lack of updates to this story since last year. I know it's been the better part of five-six months since the last update but a lot has happened IRL since last time and i can only hope that those of you here reading this that work in retail understand. All i can say is thank god Christmas is over with and now things are gradually getting back to normal now we're in February.

If any of you noticed at the start that the chapter has been labelled as "5-1" it is because the rest of this chapter is currently under production still but i have been talking with FiremanJim about this and explained that i feel i can produce better and much more detailed work in my chapters if they were broken down slightly in size. This way i can hopefully still bring you guys decently written content and at the same time bring you more frequent updates.

Now, in the chapter you may read about the armory scene where the troops that took control of a JSDF base found a large consignment of weapons; notably the 'Howa 5.56' rifles and the VP9 pistols. Well; from a document that was released last month says that these are bound to eventually replace the aging Type 89 and Type 64 rifles and the H&K VP9 to replace the old Minebea P9 (SIG-Sauer P220 9mm licensed copy) from active service in the JSDF. Whether they'll eventually replace their machine guns with new models remains to be seen but i'm curious, mainly because i'm a gun nut, lol!

Anyway, hope you folks are keeping well and i hope to see you all again very soon. Until then, take care and stay safe people and keep being awesome folks and see ya around!

 ***UPDATE (19/05/2020): The 'Howa 5.56' mentioned previously has since been named as the 'Type 20' and from this point will be referred to as such)**


	7. ARC II Chapter V-II: New Texas Republic

…

 _ **(Notes at the bottom)**_

Chapter 5-2

New Texas Republic, San Antonio

San Antonio International Airport

Texas, U.S.A

The airport runways were all empty, save for a few aircraft that were sitting on the ends of the larger runways where three C-130 cargo transporters sat along with a single C-5 Galaxy. Numerous trucks could be seen moved towards them and all the movement that could be seen that they were being either loaded or off-loaded of their cargo. There were still numerous passenger aircraft present but they looked as they hadn't been used recently and were starting to show signs or misuse and lack of maintenance.

The main building itself didn't look to have changed much over the years. Jim looked the place over and as he waited as calmly as he could bring himself to be, he remembered the times he'd been here both to pick up friends, drop them off or responded when he was still on the job as a fireman. But now here he was, years later, he was returning as a serving member of a foreign special forces team protecting the people that had taken him in and given him a home for the last six years.

His gaze however finally caught the sight of more movement below. He watched as a line of vehicles were moving onto the tarmac not far from the terminal where they were coming into the land. Several of them were Humvee's along with several flatbed trucks as well as what looked like three armoured personnel carriers. The Humvee's and flatbed's he could understand, but seeing the armoured troop carriers now gave him reason to be concerned. He was seriously hoping that the paranoia the others were feeling was just that and nothing more. But now as the moments ticked past and the helicopter was beginning to descend to where it was only a few dozen feet from touching down he too began to feel the tension radiating from the other.

That was until he felt a gently touch on his gloved hand and looked around to find Rika, his beloved, smiling at him with a calming and loving smile that instantly began to make him calm. He knew that his tensions wouldn't be relieved until they knew for sure of the intentions of the people here, but it made him feel better all the same.

' _These people_ ' he thought with a snort ' _I'm one of 'these' people and I almost think of them as being 'gaijin' just like I used to be_ '.

At heart he knew he was a Texas man. But in his mind with how things had been these last few years it had been hard not to look at people like himself and Andy as being different. There were very few foreigners still inhabiting Tokonosu airport as their home for the last half a decade and it hadn't been easy for them in the months that had followed after they had closed themselves off from the outside world.

Two of the CH-53's settled on the tarmac but their helicopter had ceased its descent and was now hovering thirty feet off the ground. The Marines and JSDF troops that had been transported inside had now piled out of the helicopters and were now on the tarmac, spaced out in a defensive formation. While their weapons weren't being aimed Jim knew that the Marines had several rotary grenade launchers between them ready to unload a volley of high-explosive rounds if anybody from the NTR's military felt brave and tried to test them. That plus he didn't think they were expecting they would be bringing along a pair of attack helicopters armed with multiple air-to-ground missiles as support along with a V-22 Osprey with a nose-mounted minigun as well.

A couple of minutes passed until their helicopter was finally brought down alongside the other two Super Stallions, and the ramp opened to allow their contingent of troops to disembark onto the runway as they and the council reminded behind aboard the helicopter. The heat rushed into the cabin from outside and it took only seconds for the old smells and the familiar heat he had once been accustomed too to invade his senses and his body.

"It's quite warm, isn't it?" he heard one of the council members speak for the first time since they had left the U.S.S George Washington. Ofcourse, they were under just as much tension as everybody else and during the flight he had figured that at least one of them would lose their lunch mid-flight.

For a few moments nothing happened after their chalk had departed onto the tarmac until nearly a minute later when one of the JSDF troopers returned to the ramp of the helicopter and gave them a smirk and looked to be ready to burst out laughing, almost as if he was privy to some private joke.

Eventually they followed. Andy and Mikhail took the lead with the Mk 48 machine gun and Tajima directly behind them before he and Rika followed with the council now directly behind them. Souichiro stood directly beside him and a brief glance shared between them showed that the Prime Minister of Japan was now ready for what was to come.

* * *

As Andrew walked down onto the tarmac with the Russian at his side, the two had expected to be walking out into either an ambush or the prelude to a gun battle. Instead, both men were let down in an almost comical fashion.

Oh, the NTR did have the numbers alright to dwarf their forces. But looking at them Andrew would have thought that the soldiers that were stood around looked as if they had all shit their britches at the sight of the excessive firepower that they had brought with them. Looking around he noticed that nearly every soldier present wore US Army ACU fatigues and caps with desert tanned combat boots. Each solider was armed, either with a knife or a sidearm on their belt but only a few seemed to have rifles that appeared military grade.

He spotted several troops with the older M16A2 assault rifle, and only one of them hand the rifle in hand while the others had theirs slung over their shoulders. The Humvee's too were armed, some with M240's and couple with M60's but nothing heavier and to top it off, none of the guns were manned.

The group huddled around the APC's were another matter and seemed to have most of the attention from their troops. They were lined up with the Humvee's and trucks, but in a manner where they could easily be defended and take the brunt of heavy firepower if any shooting did take place. They weren't dressed like the NTR forces either. Like former operators like he had once been they wore a mixture of civilian and military attire and the boots, they wore he knew were the cheap and unarmoured boots the regular forces were wearing. Their weapons too were good choices. Several wielding what looked like suppressed M4 carbines or another AR-15 variant, some with under-barrelled grenade launchers, and two with light machine guns, possibly M249's or even Mk 48's like their own.

Looking around he didn't spot anybody that appeared to be in charge. None of the regular forces appeared to have a commanding officer present and Andrew figured that if there was anybody in charge it would be one of the men lingering around the APC's, waiting to see who would come forward first.

' _Diplomatic relations were never my thing_ ' he thought and looked back to Jim and the others before shrugging ' _Guess we'll just have to try and get along and see what's what._ '

Unhooking the HK416 from around his shoulder he handed his combo weapon over to the JSDF trooper beside him, who lowered their Type 20 rifle, and took his rifle up and waited before Andrew began walking forward amongst the Marines, JSDF troops and towards the single man, who at the same time, was now moving towards him without his main weapon. Like Andrew, he was sporting a cap, sunglasses and a scruffy beard that made it hard to identify him. As the two approached one another on the tarmac he waited until they were barely thirty feet apart and said one word just loud enough for it to be heard.

"Stop," to which the man complied and waited patiently as Andrew took a moment to look around. The runway towards the C-130's and the C-5 was clear, no additional vehicles or points he could make out a possible ambush to come from. Looking to the terminal building he looked around and even with one eye beneath a pair of Oakley sunglasses he could see nothing of-

' _Ahh, there you are_ ' and spotted the slightest of movement coming from a point of the roof between two extraction fans. A lone figure covered in a tarp handling what he could only assume was a sniper rifle.

"I have to admit," the man began to break the silence between them, "It's been so many years since I ran across another operator from another country, I've never done the whole 'meet in the middle' thing until now."

Andrew however ignored him and continued to observe his surroundings. He knew there was a sniper, but where there was one there had to be a second. Some snipers liked to work independently, but trained operators also liked working in pairs.

However, it appeared that this one was much craftier than the other.

"Yeah, figured you already pegged the one on the rooftop. And yeah, there is another," the man finally caught his attention and must have seen the dangerous look in his eye after Andrew removed the Oakley's, "Don't worry though. I promise that we have no intention of harming anybody. It's hardly the right way to go about forming an alliance."

"I agree. The Cobras are like your snipers, a show of force if you like to think of them that way, but simply for our protection. It's been so long since we came across people that haven't wanted to kill us simply because they believed we were easy targets."

"In a world such as this, a show of force can mean one of two things. Either you're a dictator that's willing to take whatever they want by force. Or, hopefully, you're ready and willing to defend what's yours to the end," the man replied.

"We have no intention of starting a war, if that's what you're all worried about. Though to be honest," he paused to look at the regular forces still stood shock still near the Humvee's and trucks, "I think we may have come across too strong and made a…, drastic error. I believe it best that we start over with a formal introduction."

"Couldn't agree more," the man replied.

"I am Sergeant Andrew Marikawa. Former British Special Air Service and now part of the J-S-D-F's special forces division; green troop team leader and assigned to protecting the Japanese council and the Prime Minister himself."

"Wow, that's a mouthful," the man chuckled, "But, uhh, there's a problem," he continued, "I don't remember back when we parted ways that you had a different surname."

For a brief moment, Andrew's hand twitched near his sidearm but he relented from drawing the weapon. Not many people knew he was still alive that weren't presently serving military. Besides, he had no intention of being the one that blew this whole deal before they had even left the runway…or pissed off a sniper that likely had him in the crosshairs.

Finally, the man began to remove his headwear. First came the ballcap, followed by the sunglasses they wore and with the removal of a rag to reveal a very familiar face. Luckily it was an ally.

"John Ross Wallace," Andrew smirked as the two closed the space between them and clasp hands and shook them vigorously in greeting, "It's been too long my friend."

"Andy, you crazy old son of a bitch! How've ya been?"

"Busy. Been working the last five years trying to figure out what to do next with the lives of roughly three thousand soles still living on a cramped little island off the coast of a major Japanese mainland city that's teeming with those walking freak shows. We're looking to…seek out a new property elsewhere."

The former Delta Force operator nodded with understanding. He and the other contractors of ERI (Executive Response International) had escaped from the city after nearly two weeks of being on the run from the dead as well as rouge forces that had continuously hunted them, thinking that they were responsible for unleashing the disease that brought the dead back to life.

' _Such weak-minded fools. I'm glad I killed them, but…a quick death was more than those animals deserved_ ' Andrew still remembered the day he slit the rouge JSDF captain's throat with Jim's Gerber Mark II's serrated edge, the same knife that he had gifted to Saeko during their confrontation when he had tried to use a cheap strike against Jim while his back was turned.

' _I can still smell the iron in the air_ '

* * *

Knowing now that their arrival in San Antonio wouldn't be met with a bloodbath, the remaining helicopters, minus the Osprey which redirected towards the military medical center to directly deliver the first batch of goods promised for the trade agreement, the Marines and JSDF troops loaded themselves into the trucks and Humvee's provided while the council, Green Troop and the ERI contractors climbed into their Bearcat's and splitting up between the three vehicles to protect the council members as agreed.

Andrew and Mikhail rode in the back of one of the armoured trucks with JR, Souichiro and three other members of the council that held the most grit amongst them and who could be trusted in the absence of the others if the situation arose. As they drove through the streets of San Antonio towards their predetermined destination the thought of this being a double-cross gnawing in the back of his mind was beginning to evaporate…only just. Looking to Wallace as he conversed, well…, tried more like, with Mikhail he knew that past alliances could be turned or twisted and that if he had any chance of getting through the next twenty-four hours before even thinking of bringing his girls here he needed to be sure of who was in charge here and what they wanted in addition to medical supplies. Everybody knew that just a meagre amount of supplies wasn't worth what they were asking and many doubted the old 'Texas hospitality' still existed in this day and age until they saw it for themselves.

"You'll have to forgive my friend," Andrew finally interrupted Wallace, "He's not much for casual conversation when he's working."

"I've noticed," the former Delta chuckled as he leaned back into his seat and turned to him, "So, Marikawa huh?" he began, "When did that happen? Never figured from what I know about you and your past that you'd get hitched again."

"A few months after you and the others left with the American forces that returned home, during my recovery when I was still walking around with crutches. My wife, she was the school nurse that we rescued from the city with the group of teenagers and children."

"Her?" Wallace looked surprised, "You mean the looker with the big-"

"Finish that sentence, and I'll cut out your tongue," Andrew warned. His voice and tone were calm, but the threat everybody knew was very real.

"Uhh-sorry, sorry man. I didn't mean anyway…ya know-"

"Just tell us where we're going," Mikhail interrupted the contractor, "And don't say somewhere where we're the only ones going to meet the people in charge here."

"You're going to be having a meeting with the New Texas Republic's top political figures at the Lila Cockrell Theater. The initial meeting itself will only take an hour, two tops, and then after that the rest of the day will be for you and the rest of your people to get acclimatized," JR replied before looking out through the thick armoured glass towards the trucks before asking, "Is this everybody you've brought with you? What about the people on the ships?"

"The rest of the people that came with us, volunteers and support staff and the few families of the soldiers that came with us, are being protected and kept safe aboard the ships we arrived on," Souichiro finally spoke after entering the Bearcat back at the airport, "Until such a time after our meeting with the N-T-R's leaders has been completed, they will remain aboard those vessels until we are sure their safety can be guaranteed."

* * *

In the Bearcat the was following close behind Jim sat opposite another ERI contractor, Chris Adkins, with Rika sitting beside him and Tajima on the other and the air in this vehicle had considerably less angst. Chris had been the second in command for Green Team back when they had been on the island together the night in Tokonosu when the shit had hit the fan and since they had departed the airport Chris had been filling them in on past events that would eventually lead up to how they got where they were today.

"We'd managed to set down at the airport in Vegas, and fuck me was that one of the worst mistakes we could have made," Chris began to explain, "We had hundreds of those freaks chasing us the moment the plane set down on the tarmac and then bolting to a hanger after debussing we were lucky we found some jeeps stored inside. Took some time getting them running but eventually after we blew a large hole in the hanger doors, we got the fuck outta dodge and made it for the base."

"When we got back to the compound, we found the gates were securely sealed and vehicles had been put against them from being breeched by the zeds. When we tried to get inside, we were confronted by Frank's team just as they were returning from a raid for diesel for the base generator. Took the old prick a minute to recognise us but when J-R got through to him we managed to get inside."

"We found the compound was full of survivors from the nearby towns, hundreds of people. They'd brought their own food, water, meds and clothes with them and had been working around the base to help keep it running and safe but after months of being cooped up inside the base and living off the stores canned goods and MRE's they started resorting to raiding the towns and some houses for food and other supplies. We started helping with the raiding and keeping the horde's at bay when they came by, or we hid inside and kept quiet if there were too many to handle and afterwards did a sweep and clear before heading out on another raid."

"How long did you stay there for? Surely you couldn't have stayed there for more than a few months," Jim asked as he held onto the truck as they rounded a corner.

"We managed to stay for a few months actually. We have plenty of frozen food in the freezers and canned goods as well as several large pallets of MRE's and hundreds of thousands of liters of drinking water. Power to the base was supplied for a long time since Vegas wasn't drawing any from the grid. When that failed, we switched over to our own generators and when they were about to go out, we knew we couldn't stay there any longer."

"We salvaged several large trucks from around the county, a couple of big rigs still hauling tankers of petrol and diesel and some with water. We loaded up what we could into trucks and the morning after we had a large cook-up of what was left in the freezers we left the base. We recovered most of what we could of your stuff buddy, we got what we could stored in the barracks where we're based."

"I appreciate it bud, thank you," Jimmy replied and hoped silently they had recovered his RC submarine but figured if anything it had likely been left behind in order to carry much needed supplies instead of one of his prized possessions.

"Anyway, after we eventually left the base we headed east before eventually heading south. We didn't really have anywhere in mind at the time but when we were driving around, we were always on the lookout for large hordes. Eventually when it looked as though we were in the clear we figured if there's one state that survived this thing it'd be the 'Lone Star' state."

"How exactly did you end up here though?" Jim asked, "It's a long trek from Nevada to here and covering a few hundred miles across hostile country with civvies couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't buddy," Chris admitted, "We lost eleven people to rouge survivors and another eight to the infected. Three of them within minutes of each other by one of those freaking…runners, but they were the coordinated ones. Real smart bastards. Little prick actually hid from Frank when he turned his Mossberg against it."

"A Foxtrot-November," Rika said as Chris looked to her, "It's what Andrew-San called them. The 'Fucking Nightmares' as they've become known. Fast, strong, smart and really dangerous and if you encounter one, you'll be lucky to escape it unscathed."

"Sounds like you've encountered them before."

"We have, several times. The most recent was about two months ago in Japan when we were on a supply run out in the country. An isolated community, or the remains of one, had been hit just a day before our arrival and one of the infected that had attacked the settlement had stuck around and attacked two of our soldiers before we managed to kill it."

"Damn, that sucks. Sorry for your losses," Chris offered before continuing, "Eventually we made our way south until we arrived in the Big Bend National Park. We stayed by a river for a while in a canyon and we were pretty well protected and had good defensible positions and were there for nearly a month before a passing military patrol found and followed one of our teams that had been out scouting for resources back to camp. That nearly ended pretty badly," he huffed with amusement.

"National Guard?" Jim asked.

"All I'm gonna say buddy is that they were lucky we weren't bandits. Because the moment those guys rolled into our camp they failed to notice that we had ourselves positioned so we could've torn their vehicle into swiss cheese with everything we had pointed at them," the contractor chuckled, "Don't tell Andy this, but…uhh, we managed to get into his stash."

"What stash is this?" Rika asked, her interest peeked.

"It was about a day before we left the base. We had already stripped out everything we could from the stores and everywhere else of anything valuable or useful but we had still got to clear out the rooms of the contractors who hadn't returned from Japan, you and Andy."

"We got into your room first and cleared out anything we could find…sorry about that by the way," Chris suddenly added as he realised what he had just said but fortunately the Texan just waved him on, "Anyway, afterwards we managed to get into Andy's room. We always knew that that crazy S-O-B liked to keep something close by with a considerable amount of firepower in case something bad ever happened. We broke into his rifle locker and cleared out the rifles and ammo he kept in there, but then we came across the floor safe he had installed and…well, found something I don't think we should have."

"What do you mean? Like what?"

Just as Chris was about to speak the vehicle suddenly began to slow and looking outside through the thick armored glass he realised they had come to their destination, "Later. Right now, we've arrived."

* * *

"Never been inside a Bearcat before," Andrew grumbled as he stepped down into the pavement and had to bend over and then back to stretch the muscles in his back and shoulders to work out the stiffness, "Fucking hated it."

"You're never happy with anything are you?" Mikhail chuckled as the two walked towards the occupants of the other vehicle as they were departing through the open doors.

"What's Andy not happy about now?" Rika asked as she, Jim and Tajima rejoined their team mates as Souichiro and Yuriko both stood nearby as the other ERI contractors filed out of their vehicles, "Is he moaning again?" Jim then asked with a knowing smile.

"Hey, my bloody back's hurting, alright?" he mumbled as he tried rubbing his back but groaned when his hands only felt as though they were slowly wearing down the fibers in his vest, "Jeez, I need some painkillers."

"Not a young man anymore are you," Jim said knowingly, "One day 'kid', you'll finally come to understand what it's like to be a former fireman, turned contractor and then spec-ops to finally understand how all this gets to ya," he laughed.

"Oi! You're only a few years older than me," he grumbled as he came back up to full height and heard a small pop come from somewhere in his back, "Ahh! Shite that hurts."

"When was the last time you have a physical?" Tajima asked, a little concerned for the team leaders health.

"Back when we actually had time for doing real checks. This is nothing."

"It won't be for much longer if you don't get a check-up soon. Probably should have shipped you off to the hospital with all the medial gear in that Osprey," Rika said as Andrew took up his rifle from where it had hung.

"Let's just get inside and get this show on the road. We can all bitch, moan and have a laugh at my expense later when we're all squared away."

"Sure thing, old man," Jim chuckled.

None of them heard the grumbles coming from Andrew as they wandered off ahead as he started following after them as the Takagi's followed with their escort team inside the Crockett hotel.

* * *

Rika whistled as they walked into the lobby of the building and looked around the room. The grand piano sitting nearby, the reception desk that was being manned by several members of staff that stood by ready for them, all dressed smartly in southern attire with two soldiers positioned nearby armed with shotguns.

Her eyes wandered over everything; the security cameras, the soldiers, the staff, the piano, the doors that lead off to the adjoining rooms and the elevators. So far, she couldn't see anything as a threat to the group, but even with the carbine lowered her hand didn't stray far from the sidearm on her hip.

"This is where we're staying the night?" she asked as the others joined them.

"This and two other locations, if you choose to bring your people here if you want them here," Chris said as he entered behind them with J.R right beside him.

"Figured we'd be getting the meet and greet outta the way today," Jim asked, "We've still got nearly half a day of sun left."

"The governor and his staff are currently out of town attending to another matter but they'll be here at first light tomorrow morning. Until then you've all got rooms in the hotel and all of the facilities are open to you. We've got a restaurant downstairs with a buffet dinner at six o'clock this evening but we've also got room service available here and a fully stocked bar downstairs too if any of you need a drink."

"You need a drink Andy?" JR asked him, "I know how much you liked your Johnnie Walker."

"I quit the heavy stuff. Was fucking my guts up something awful, but I won't say no to a beer. However, the rest of these lads," he nodded towards some of the Marines entering behind them had a mixture of surprise and excitement at the thought of alcohol, "These buggers will need to be given limits on the quantity they can drink."

"If I remember anything about the Marines is that they are suckers when it comes to holding their alcohol," Chris laughed.

"Anyway," J.R said gaining their attention as he turned to Souichiro, "We'll be here to pick you up tomorrow morning around nine and then we'll be heading over to the Lila Cockrell Theater. That's where we'll be meeting the governor tomorrow and the others. But for tonight, this is their way of saying; welcome to Texas!"

* * *

For the next few hours after their arrival at the hotel, the Marines and JSDF searched the building from top to bottom while the Takagi's and the delegates were kept in the bar area with Green Troop providing security with another squad of their own troops. Before they even allowed them to head up to their rooms, they all had to be thoroughly searched from top to bottom, all of the electronics, light fixtures, the bathrooms, the beds, furniture and art work hanging on the walls and even the air conditioners were checked.

"Are the searches really necessary?" one of the delegates asked as they started to lose patience.

"Would you like to go to your room and find it laced with explosives?" Andrew asked with the same attitude, "Didn't think so."

He walked away from the table and back towards the others as they stood nearer the Takagi's and quietly conversing amongst themselves, "Fucking muppets," he grumbled, "No disrespect to Texans Jim, but until after tomorrow I don't trust no fucker in this building that didn't come with us."

"Not even our own guys?" Jim asked, "We worked with these guys for a long time Andy. You actually more than me."

"After nearly six years, not a chance."

"You gotta have grounds though for why you don't trust them though," Tajima said as he sat himself down on one of the chairs at a nearby table.

"People's allegiances have a tendency to change, and I've learned that the hard way all too often. People you once worked with, people you trust enough to have your back and respect. Surprising how quickly that all goes down the shitter when somebody makes a better offer."

It was then Rika and Jim realised they may have just reopened an old wound for Andrew as he seemed to be speaking from experience. They decided quickly that they were best to talk about something else other than their current situation and onto something a bit more hopeful.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," Rika began after a minute as she leaned into her husband, "When we've finally gotten this whole deal over and done with, I'd like to take what little time we have here to explore the city a bit. Find out where my loveable hunk grew up and show me the sights."

"I've be more than happy to show you the Alamo and the old Japanese tea gardens."

"Japanese tea gardens? Here?" Mikhail asked, a little surprised something of the sort existed in Texas.

"Well, it used to be the Japanese tea gardens. But during the second world war when a lot of Japanese nationals were rounded up and put into camps for the duration of the war it was turned into the Chinese tea gardens," Jim then looked and felt a bit awkward with the change of topic that had now come to bite him in the ass, "Yeah…"

"There's nothing for you to feel bad about, Jimu-San. This all happened long before you were born and something out of your control," Souichiro had apparently been listening in on their conversation and had come to the man's rescue.

"I wouldn't mind trying out one of the steak houses. Heard a lot about the restaurants here still running so I'd love to get a hold a chance to sink my teeth into some ribs," Tajima said as he stared off to the distance, "Been ages since I last ate meat."

"That's one thing I know we'll have a chance to do. I picked up a pamphlet they had sitting in the lobby and it was printed last year, if that's even true, and there are eighteen restaurants near here alone and hundreds more in the city."

"Surprised there's enough cattle around still for there to be steak houses open."

"I would like some fish. Some nice seafood," Mikhail said.

"We pretty much eat fish every day now man. I wouldn't be surprised if there's something in your ration kit that isn't either smoked or dried. But then again, it's cooked differently here and there's plenty of variety too."

"Wouldn't mind some eggs," Andrew added to everyone's surprise as he was usually the one that kept anything that wasn't mission related off the gossip train until, "And some bacon. Hell, a full English breakfast would be nice. Can't remember the last time I had a cup of tea with some sugar."

"Hopefully not that creepy 'blood sausage' you limeys like," Jim chuckled, happy that his friend was joining in for once on casual conversation.

"Black pudding? Love that stuff when it's cooked the correct way. Pan fried in bacon fat, yum!" he added with some slight enthusiasm which got a small chuckle from the group.

"Sir!" a voice called towards the group and Andrew quickly stood upright and moved towards the three Marines that were stood at the doors waiting for him. The group watched, ready to move in case there was a situation, as the team leader conversed with the Sergeant before there was an exchange of thanks before he walked back towards them and looking more at ease.

"Checked the place out from top to bottom; place is clean of anything nasty and no secret-agent stuff hiding either. The electricity and water are working in all the rooms too as well as air conditioning. We're all able to now head to our rooms and get some rest for the night."

"We're due to check in with the carrier in the next thirty minutes. Can we get secure messages through?" Souichiro asked as he stood from the table and stood with the team.

"The Sergeant just told me she had her men set up a secure communication relay up in the penthouse suite. You'll be able to talk to them directly from your room without fear of anybody eavesdropping in on the conversation."

"Then we should start heading up," the Prime Minster sighed as he looked outside from the bar to the garden and saw already that the sun would be setting in the next couple of hours.

* * *

Andrew had set himself up on the roof of the hotel as in the penthouse below he knew Souichiro was talking with the carrier group and giving them an update and receiving messages of his own. It was surprising that half a day had already passed since they had come all the way up from Corpus Christi and were now in San Antonio. He wasn't happy that he wouldn't likely be able to see his family for a couple more days than expected, but he would rather be safer than sorry if something had happened during their stay.

He didn't mean any disrespect whatsoever towards the Texans, or towards Jimmy when he had spoken his mind earlier about trusting strangers. To Jim, these folks here were likely the first if not the only Texans he'd seen in nearly half a decade and if the situation were different and they were in the UK instead of here their roles would likely be reversed. But after six years of people, real human beings, trying to kill them, steal from them and do whatever they tried to please themselves with it was hard to trust anybody that he wasn't familiar with.

All of that without having to worry about edible food, clean drinking water, electricity, medicine procurement, fuel demands and even just basic maintenance was just the tip of the iceberg to worry about, let alone the goddamned infected. And people wondered why he was so damned paranoid of this whole meeting being a complete farce…, and the change of their meeting with the NTR heads of state and others in a position of power here wasn't helping.

He'd bite his tongue on the subject for now until after the meeting tomorrow and if things did go well and there wasn't going to be a double-cross, he'd apologise to Jim in front of everybody.

"Jeez, I need a ciggie," he sighed as he leaned back against one of the buildings air conditioning units and sighed.

"Never gets any easier does it?"

"Try as you may, comrade," he turned towards the Russian as he approached from the rooftop stairwell exit and walked towards him with a small carton of cigarettes in hand, "But you need to work on sneaking if you hope to get the jump of me."

"And there lies your problem. I wasn't trying to sneak. I came here with a little…gift," Mikhail said as he leaned against the unit with him and offered him the packet he held, "Here, try one. They're pretty good for American branded cigarettes."

"Good yank cigs? The hell's up with that?" he chuckled. The only cigarettes he used to like that he could get were Marlboro's and even then, they were shit. He always preferred British cigarettes; Benson & Hedges Blue's and Sterling Capsules were always top of his list. Still, these were likely better than the stuff he'd been growing back behind their hanger with the other soldiers 'special stashes'. Growing tobacco and then processing it for smoking took a damn long time when you had little if no experience doing it and there were plenty of wasted plants through trial and error.

"I think you need some rest. I know you've been going more than thirty hours now; you need to sleep and I actually haven't seen you eat since yesterday," Mikhail tried.

"I had some Milky Ways from an M-R-E I had earlier. Still got a few and some peanut butter paste too."

"Okay, first; peanut butter paste is not food. Secondly, let me have a Milky Way bar," the Russian said and made a motion of 'Gimme-Gimme' with his hand.

"In exchange for what may I ask?"

"I just gave you those cigarettes. More than a fair trade I think."

Andrew opened a pouch on the side of his vest and produced the opened MRE and handed it over to Mikhail and the man happily began digging through it to find the Milky Ways but also a few Snickers and Mars bars too, "Where did all these come from?"

"Hey, you can have the Milky Ways, the others are for my kids and the missus so keep ya mucky hands off 'em," he warned after Mikhail took what he was after before Andrew took the bag back.

"Thank you," Mikhail smiled as he greedily tore into the candy bars, "Hmm, so sickly sweet, but really yummy!"

"First American cigarettes, now American candy. Next thing you'll be telling me is that you like American beer too," and couldn't help but chuckle when Mikhail stopped chewing for a moment when he looked like he wanted to answer with a 'yes'.

"I prefer vodka more. The batch you helped me make back home was almost perfect. Just wished we had the right ingredients."

"Not as easy as the make-it-yourself home brew kits for beer."

"My uncle used to own a little brewery. Just outside of Moscow actually. It was small, ran his entire operation out of an old factory that was used to make textiles. He tried his hand at most things; vodka, schnapps, wine, beer and other spirits," he smiled at the memory, "I used to help him when I was young, back during my off time when I was serving with ground forces before joining the airborne troops, before Spetsnaz."

"When I used to work with him, he would sell what he made to local businesses, money under the table so to speak so he wouldn't lose any to tax. He had been out of work for many years after the fall of the Soviet Union. He also used to be an airborne trooper and was deployed to Afghanistan back in eighty-three."

'oh fuck' was all Andrew could think. He read a lot about the Soviet-Afghan war when he was in training himself with the Royal Marines and what he understood was that the Mujahedeen, while they were victims of the Soviet invasion as much as the Afghan people, they were also fucking savages. Supply convoys in the mountains would be hit by small teams and even if they had BMP's or BTR's for protection nobody would ride inside of them because nobody wanted to burn alive inside one of those things when hit with an RPG. Those that weren't blown up, burnt or shot to shreds were normally captured and those that died were normally the lucky ones. One report claimed how a unit of airborne troops had been ambushed in the mountains by a Mujahedeen cell and the only survivor was somebody that later shot themselves because the three others that had also been captured had been skinned alive and had been left to die and excruciating pain as the survivor had been tied up to a tree and forced to watch them slowly die.

"He wasn't much good with his hands after he came home from the war. He did try his best with many things, many jobs came and went. So eventually after I left home to train and to try and earn some money just to have some food on the table, he went into making alcohol. And while he did make, as you say a 'pretty penny', more went down his throat."

"Alcohol got my old man too. Was worst for him after he came back after fighting in the Falklands," Andrew spoke after a couple of minutes as he suffered through the terrible cigarette.

"Where we were a couple of days ago? He fought there?"

"Aye, back in eighty-two when the Argies were dug in deep during the Battle of Goose Green. Worst of the fighting took place there. Lost more than a few lads there that he knew for a good few years. It's also where he got shot in the foot with a fifty caliber too. Was damned lucky the medics got to him earlier otherwise he'd have bled out."

"What happened to him after the war ended?"

"Well, he was alright for a bit. He got discharged because nobody wants a cripple fighting for 'em," he scoffed, knowing how his dad felt all too often, "Fought for his country and all and like too many veterans after a war and after something bad's happened to them they get told 'thanks for your service, now fuck off' was pretty much all he got. No military pension, no compensation, sweet fuck all."

"A friend of his was able to get him a prosthetic foot made and fitted. Pretty good one too from what I remember of what I saw of it. But then after many months where he was out of work I remember when he used to come home drunk…and all the other shite that happened afterwards."

He always remembered getting locked in the cupboard when he was a child, had these few items he had get taken away from him and locked away for weeks or months on end and some days he remembered where he wasn't fed at all and went hungry. He was just glad that eventually after his grandparents hadn't heard from him after nearly a whole month they came to check and found the state he had been it and took him away.

"Was it because of the drink? That he was violent?" Mikhail asked gently, not wanting to upset the man any further than he already was.

"No," Andrew chuffed, "It was just because I was an 'accident' child. He never wanted me and neither did my mother. When I grew up it was always me that had to survive and fight for myself. When I did my homework, I learned on my own or from my friends. My sister never helped me either, she was of in a world of her own half the time and it wasn't until after I left home at sixteen, she realised that I actually existed."

"Couldn't you have stayed with your grandparents?"

"Would have loved too. Unfortunately, my granddad was already sick and died a few months after they took me away and my grandma died a short time afterwards. Doctors said it was from a 'broken heart', and I believed it too because they loved each other very much. Not my folks though, only reason they were together at all was because my old man got drunk with her one night he was on leave and knocked her up with my sister back in seventy-seven."

No words were exchanged afterwards as the two stood in silence and looked over the city and the street lights started to flicker on as the dusk skyline soon became a dark backdrop.

Eventually Mikhail broke the silence; "Must have been hard for you, going back after so many years when you took you nephew home."

"Thank god it was Sarah's brother's kid lad not my sisters', because otherwise I don't know what I would've done."

"You would have left him behind if he was?"

"Fuck no. I may hate my surviving blood relatives back home but I'd never leave a kid to die."

"And I suppose that means you'll never allow your children to know who their grandparents and other relatives are either?" Mikhail began to smile when he saw his friend was now more relaxed than he was before and had a small smile of his own.

"No. Nah man, I wouldn't allow it. They've asked ofcourse, but I wouldn't allow them to share the same air as them if I have a say in it," he rubbed the cigarette out, "Shizuka's tried talking to me about it before as well, but there's no way I'd let my kids anywhere near my dad."

"Why not?" Mikhail began to ask, "He wouldn't touch them-"

"If that cunt even looked at them funny, I would cut his fucking hands off!" Andrew growled, "He hurt me and my sister once just because we made friends with a lad on our street just because he was black. So, trust me, if he hurt us just because we knew a lad that was of a different colour how'd you think he'd treat my kids? My wife?"

"I think you would kill him before he even got the chance to."

"Believe me, it took everything I had in me when I took my nephew home not to kill all of them. Instead I took them a bag full of survival gear and other things to help them through the winter instead of a bag of guns and wasting the lot of 'em."

"Why though? Why take them supplies if you hate them so much?" Mikhail felt he knew the answer but he wanted for his comrade to tell him himself, that way then he would know his team leader better.

"Because; despite the fact I hate their guts and wanted to kill them so god damned badly, it was because when I was looking through the living room window of that same fucking house again after nearly two decades, my sister was there with a child of her own. And my mum and dad were sat there with them, playing and taking care of him and I saw so much love in their eyes. Like they were different people."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Come on comrade, you surely can't expect me to believe that was all. What else was there?"

He released an exasperated sigh along with a sad chuckle before looking Mikhail in the eye and gave him the answer he wanted.

"Because, they looked as though they really cared for that little lad. Gave him all the love, care and attention that I wished they could have given me and just seeing it, made me really happy but made me so angry at the same time. It took the fucking apocalypse for them to understand how important family is and…it wasn't for me."

"You are carrying a lot of emotional baggage," the Russian said and placed a hand on his shoulder, "We all carry some ourselves, where it be family or something else, just know that you have a family with us too, comrade."

They stood that way for a couple of minutes before Andrew knocked the hand from his shoulder and smiled, "Never took you for a shrink."

"Don't go deflecting what I just said," he warned.

"I'm not, okay, fuck," and stood up from the brick and stretched, "I do care about you guys too. I'd do whatever I can for you guys too; take a bullet, get blown up and, hell, even take a bite for any of you. It's just…it's harder for me to express my feelings and with so much 'emotional baggage' as you call it, sometimes its hard for me to see through a lot of it to see what's real and…" he trailed off Mikhail understood what he meant to say.

They both stood there for a moment and as Andrew looked off towards the city once again, he thought about something that did make him smile and gave him a chuckle that made Mikhail smile too, "What is it?"

"Hard to believe that what we just talked about was all because of some bloody Milky Ways."

Mikhail could only shake his head, "Yeah, damn now I'm hungry talking about food again."

Almost as if it was intentional at that very moment, they began to smell something through the extractors that came with hints of something sweet, savoury, spicy and something that smelt so bloody delicious they both started drooling.

"Is that…what I think it is?" Andrew asked as he and Mikhail looked at each other before they both started racing for the rooftop access, pushing and shoving each other aside like children with both of them trying to get downstairs first like they were being called for dinner.

* * *

"Should I be disgusted right now," Andrew began as they both stopped at the scene they had both walked in on, "Or not give a fuck and head straight for the food?" he asked Mikhail as they watched Jim, Rika and Tajima all greedily chowing down on plates stacked high with a mixture of different dishes that they could only guess was Tex-Mex and steak.

"I'm more interested right now with food. After what we just talked about, I want some that isn't going to make me W-M-D my sheets tonight while I sleep," and the Russian headed straight for the food where he grabbed a plate and start with some eggs and a few rashers of bacon before pouring himself a large glass of water.

The room was packed. He could see all of the Marines, JSDF and the council in their own seating areas and happily eating their own suppers while chatting with each other animatedly and even laughing. The change of scenery had already started helping these folks and the change of food too from the military rations, fried fish and boiled rice was all a wonderful change too.

"These beef tips, aww man, these are the best!" he heard Jim express as he happily chowed down on a mixture of meat, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs as Mikhail approached with his own plate of piled high food before.

"I don't think I've ever had anything this good in…ages," Rika smiled as she spooned a mouthful of fluffy eggs into her mouth that had been mixed with gravy and beef that was so tender it had broken down the moment she had begun to chew on it.

"It has been six years, long time since we had food that wasn't boiled in a packet," Tajima replied happily as he stored his spoon to mix his food together.

Andrew appeared a few minutes later with a plate of food that held a couple of steaks, a small pile of mixed vegetables and some scrambled eggs along with a tall glass of water with several ice cubes in it.

"Taking it easy the first night huh," Jim commented between bites, "Can't blame you mate. Tex-Mex can really mess you up if you aren't used to it."

"Surprised these two are taking it so well," he motioned to Rika and Tajima, "Bet they'll be gracing the shitter all night."

"Jesus Andrew," Rika groaned as she stopped half way chewing her steak.

* * *

Looking at his wrist watch, adjusted to local time, Andrew was sat on the edge of his bed and sighed heavily as the boots came off and laced on the floor with a thud as he then shuffled off the pants and then peeled off his shirt and dropped it all in a pile on the floor. He fell back with his head hitting the soft pillows and felt the steel of his P226 beneath it with his back-up P226 sitting on the bedside table beside his Surefire mini flashlight. He felt secure knowing he had 40-rounds of 9mm between the two pistols close at hand with an additional 60-rounds of 5.56 and several shotguns rounds too with his carbine sitting on the bed beside him. It was odd sleeping with a fully loaded rifle close at hand again instead of his wife and kids but he was starting to take comfort knowing that in less than twenty-four hours they would be beside him instead.

For now, as he began to feel sleep beginning to take over and the emotions of the day mixed all together, he soon passed out as his hand lightly clutched two small photographs that he always kept close to his heart.

Sarah and Anastasia.

Shizuka, Alice and Akane.

* * *

Three loud knocks sounded on the door and a couple of moments later Chris heard footsteps approaching from the other side with the familiar sound of a hammer being cocked, "Who is it?" he heard Rika's sweet voice.

"It's Adkins. Can I come in?"

After several more seconds and the sound of something being removed from behind the door the door opened and Chris stood there and saw Jimmy and Rika both standing there waiting for him with suppressed pistols by their sides, "What's up?" Jim was the first to ask.

"I wanted to let you know that the governor is back home at his residence now and the meeting is all set-up for tomorrow at noon at the original meeting spot. We'll have vehicles downstairs waiting for you at eleven for departure. Gives you all enough time to get there and settled in."

"Good, that's good," Rika added as she de-cocked her pistol and set it down on the bed.

"There is something else however. Something we never got to finish talking about earlier."

"About Andy?"

"Yeah," and Chris looked up and down the corridor before walking into the room and closing the door behind himself and asked, "Have either of you ever heard of anything called 'Section-Six' before?"

* * *

 _ **Notes:**_

Well, hey folks, hope that everybody here reading this chapter is doing well and has been taking care of themselves these past few months since our own outbreak has occurred. First off, this is an apology for the long delay between the two parts of this chapter being finished and uploading them separately. The reason being was that i knew this chapter was going to be long and i wanted to split it into two pieces so that people wouldn't get bored reading half-way through and quit. Secondly, those reading the chapter may notice there are some differences and maybe even some changes from the start of the chapter towards the end.

Again, i'm sorry people. With everything going on since March and being stuck at work every day stocking shelves with food, baking food and then taking all manner of abuse and shit from customers has left me feeling down and not wanting to write at all and it's amazing i think that i've even wanted to write this piece or continue writing at all. I did even at one point think after i had a good cry after getting home think 'I don't want to write anymore' because it has started to feel more of a chore than something i enjoy. While most of this chapter has been finished for nearly the last two weeks i've tried multiple times to do editing but haven't felt the compassion i once felt, not right now at least anyway.

But, knowing there are some people out there in the world that do like the stories that Jim and myself but out i shall continue but the chapters will be uploaded less frequently for the time being and whenever we have time to write, edit and talk with each other to decide on what we're doing next.

Anyway folks, please just look after yourselves and take care. I want to be able to keep uploading chapters for everybody to read and enjoy so the next few chapters will be more fun-filled and what i hope can pass for comedy in parts while still being serious. This chapter has touched upon some sensitive issues but this will be all we'll be seeing of it for the time being.

I do have some time off coming up in a couple of weeks so hopefully i'll be able to make a start on a new chapter for y'all soon. Take care, stay safe, look after yourselves and i hope that i see you all again next time, see ya around!

 _ **P.S:**_ If any of you can, look up the survival-horror drama series "We're Alive", anybody can listen to the audio series on the website 'Spreaker' for free. I wouldn't recommend the series if i didn't enjoy it guys and with the recent addition called "We're Alive: Gold Rush" being released at the end of last year with Danny Trejo guest staring in the first episode and taking more of a comedy route, while still being serious, over the original series i think you'll all be in for a treat!

 _ **P.P.S:**_ Please favorite, follow and review please guys!

 ***UPDATE (19/05/2020): In previous chapters the 'Howa 5.56 Rifle' has since been designated the 'Type 20' and from now on it will be referred to as such)**


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